Meltdown
by Shadow over Egypt
Summary: What if everything you believed in… every moment you experienced… and every memory you hold dear…never happened? Yami Mouto wakes up in a hospital in London, after recovering from a two year 'coma'. But everything has changed...
1. Where am I?

**Shadow: **If I don't type something other than 'With a Wave of the Wand', it'll fry my brain. (Sounds of brain frying.)This is kind of a release from WAWOTW, and the plot differs completely (hopefully). Yugi-tachi are all generally the ages they are in the anime, and Bakura and Yami are out of their items, with their own corporeal forms. I always make Yami a little older than Yugi (and Bakura a little older than Ryou), so Yugi's sixteen, and Yami's seventeen (same goes for the albinos). Hope you enjoy this, and if you're a fan of my other fics, please don't kill me (chibi eyes) as I _promise _I'll work on them…

**Summary:**

What if everything you believed in… every moment you experienced… and every memory you hold dear… never happened? Yami Mouto wakes up in a hospital in London, after recovering from a two year coma. Memories are fresh in his mind after his sleep, yet it seems that nothing he remembers holds any truth in the life he's woken up into. Determined to prove he's not mad, he sets out seeking answers, searching for his friends, his family, and his _life. _

There's only one thing worse than finding out you're crazy…

And that's finding out you're not.

**Notes:**

(Blah.) – Yugi to Yami

/Blah./ - Yami to Yugi

_Blah _– Character's individual thoughts

* * *

**Meltdown**

**Chapter 1: Where am I?**

"Yugi, no! _Run!"_

"Yami, no, I can't, I _won't-"_

And then the pharaoh was pushing his hikari away, pushing him out of the door, the power of the Shadows still strong, strong at the time he needed it the most. But Yugi was fighting, not wanting to leave his darker half behind. Yet the energy behind him was building, drowning out his little light's voice, and Yugi realised, speaking – _pleading - _in the pharaoh's mind.

(Yami, _please! _Come with me, you still can and-)

/No, aibou… I must stay here…/

(_Yami-!)_

And then Yugi was cut off, the energy wave building and crackling and finally releasing in an immense, powerful wave, blasting all that stood in it's path. And Yami blasted the Shadows straight back at it, dark meeting light in an earth-shattering _boom_, and the pharaoh was flung back, the puzzle shining bright around his neck, and then-

And then…

…

_Only dark._

* * *

"Yami? Yami, honey? Can you hear me?"

The voice registered in Yami's thoughts, lifting the black veil hanging over his mind.

"Yami? Yami, baby. Come on sweetie. I'm here. Your mommy's here." It was a woman's voice, soft and sweet, sounding close to tears. "Wake up, honey. Wake up."

_I don't know who you are lady, but you're not my 'mommy'._

Yami's eyes flickered, on the verge of opening.

The woman saw. "That's it, baby, wake up. I'm here, darling, I'm here."

_Baby? Darling? Lady, you need to see a doctor._

Another voice spoke, a male's this time. "That's it son, just keep listening to your mother. Wake up."

_Son!_

"Come back to us, sweetie."

Yami groaned, and his eyes opened. "Where am I?"

He seemed to be lying on a bed, wrapped up in stiff white sheets that crinkled as he moved. A strange machine bleeped at his side, a blue line running across a screen, punctuated every so often by a jagged hill. It was connected to him by a wire… which was pinned to his head. There were tubes in his arms…and there was a drip beside the bed…

The teen yelped. "I'm in a _hospital!"_

Suddenly, a light was shone directly in his eyes, and a voice spoke. "Can you tell me your name?"

Yami tried to swat the light away. "I- stop it! Why the hell are you-!"

The voice spoke again. "Please, just relax. I'm a doctor. I need you to answer my questions."

Sighing, the teen complied. "My name is Yami. Yami Mouto."

"And your age…?"

"Seventeen."

The light flicked off. Yami blinked, trying to clear his vision from dancing blue spots. He rubbed his eyes, and suddenly noticed the other people in the room. There were two men and a woman, huddled at the side of his bed, all strangers to him.

One of the men was wearing a white coat – Yami presumed he was the doctor with the annoying light – and he was talking to the other two people, who were obviously a married couple. The man had his arm around the lady, and she cuddled into his grip, smiling nervously at the doctor. She was a pretty woman with long black hair and almond eyes, late thirties at the most. The man beside her couldn't have been much older, his face still classically handsome, his brown eyes serious as he listened to the doctor. It must have been their voices he's heard… The both looked like nice, friendly people, but their faces seemed to say that they hadn't had a lot to be happy about for some time. But the woman… she looked wildly ecstatic about something… and she kept shooting glances at Yami…

The three came over to the bed. The woman smiled tremblingly at him, and Yami's confusion deepened. Who was she?

The doctor had materialised a clip board from somewhere. "Yami, can you tell me what year it is?"

"2005."

The doctor nodded slightly, and made a mark on his clipboard. "And the date…?"

"August 17th."

"Hmm…" Another note. "Yami, do you know why you're in this hospital?"

"No."

The doctor sighed. "Yami, you've been in a coma for two years. You were right about the year – it _is _2005 – but it's not August 17th. In fact, it's March 2nd."

"That's impossible."

"And why would that be?" A clinical eye surveyed him.

"I can't have been in a coma for two years, I was- I haven't – Yugi was – I can't!" Yami's voice rose slightly. _I haven't been out of the _puzzle _two years, so how could I have been in a coma!_

"Yugi? Who is this _Yugi?"_

"He's my brother." _At least that's what we told the authorities…_

The woman squeaked quietly, and buried her face in her husband's chest. The man shushed her, his eyes fixed on Yami's.

The doctor made another note. "Can you tell me about Yugi?"

The teen frowned, a foreboding feeling beginning in his mind. "What do you want to know?"

"I don't know. Tell me about him."

"He's my little brother. He's sixteen, almost exactly a year younger than me. He looks a lot like me, except he's got purple eyes and he's shorter than me. Where is he? It's unlike him not being here…"

The doctor frowned slightly, looking at Yami over the top of his clipboard. "What about the rest of your family?"

"My parents are dead and I live with Yugi and our grandpa."

The woman wailed quietly. Again, the man shushed her.

Yami looked at her curiously. "Is she alright?"

The doctor's face was serious. "It's not her I'm worried about. Yami… your parents aren't dead."

The teen's face was blank. "I know they're dead."

The woman wailed even louder, and this time her husband didn't try to stop her. His eyes fixed on Yami, a quiet sadness reflecting in their depths.

"Yami, they can't possibly be dead."

Yami felt a spark of aggressiveness light within him. He _knew _his _and _Yugi's parents were dead. "And why's that?"

The doctor fixed Yami in his gaze again, like he would a dead frog under a microscope, intense and unwavering. He motioned the room's other two occupants forward, the woman's face wet with tears, and the man's grimly dry.

The doctor hesitated for a moment, and then spoke. "Yami, these are your parents."

The woman looked up, "Sweetie…" She stepped towards Yami, her hand extended towards the teen's face.

Yami recoiled. "Who _are _you? Lady, you're not my mother!"

The woman let out a choked sob, her hand falling to her side. The man tried. "Son…"

Yami moved even further away. "And you're _not _my father! Where's Yugi?"

The doctor was furiously scribbling on his board. He paused for a moment, and spoke to his patient. "Yami, you're hurting your parents."

"They're _not my parents! _My parents are _dead! Dead! _These… these _people, _they're strangers to me! Where's _Yugi?"_

The doctor made a few more notes.

The woman was sobbing openly. "Yami, baby, why are you doing this? What did we do to you to deserve this? Sweetheart…"

Yami only pulled further away from her.

The doctor tried to comfort the woman. "Mrs. Mouto, Yami doesn't mean to hurt you. I think your son's suffering from psychosis; his mind seems to have fabricated a new life for him to cope with the accident, and his resulting coma. It does happen with coma patients, and most quickly recover and go back to their normal lives. What your son says may be hurtful, but he doesn't really mean it. Deep down inside of him, I'm sure at some level of his consciousness he recognises you. He just needs your love and support, and to know you'll be there for him."

_Psychosis! _Yami let out a yell. "I'm not mad!"

The woman smiled again, swallowing her tears. "Of course you're not, honey, it's just… you're a little…_confused _at the moment. It'll be alright soon though… the doctors will help you…"

Yami's voice was cold as he spoke to her. "Woman, get this through your skull, you are _not _my mother, I am _not _your honey, and don't you _ever _think that."

The woman hiccupped. "Baby…"

"I'm not your son!" Yami was yelling again, anger flaring inside him. "You're not my parents and you never _will_ be! Where's Yugi? Where are my friends? What have you _done _to them!" he tried to get out of bed, but the doctor was there, restraining him, yelling for a nurse and sedatives. And then there was another woman there, dressed in blue, a needle in her hand... And she was putting something in his drip, and his mind was going fuzzy, and it was hard to think, and the couple were hugging again, the woman distraught, crying, and the man comforting her, and his mind… and the room… it was swimming now… circles and circles and circles… and then the woman was leaning over him, her husband at her side… whispering to him… "Sweetie…"

And the doctor muttering in the background… "A clear case of psychosis if ever I saw one…"

And nothing was clear any more… it was so hazy… so hard to think….only one thing really clear to him….

_I'm not mad._

**

* * *

Shadow: Gah. My facts are probably _all _wrong, but hey… I'm not a doctor. I _hate _hospitals… does it show? And those little light things… They are _really _annoying if they get shone in your eyes, especially if you're still woozy after anaesthetic. (Trust me; I have experience on that one.)**Gah. My facts are probably wrong, but hey… I'm not a doctor. I hospitals… does it show? And those little light things… They are annoying if they get shone in your eyes, especially if you're still woozy after anaesthetic. (Trust me; I have experience on that one.) 

Well… off I go to commit brain suicide with WAWOTW writer's block. (Le sigh.) Fuuuun.


	2. A bad start

**Shadow: **I promised an update, and here it is. The long period (okay, _extremely long _period) of time this took me gave me plenty of time to research info on psychosis and medicine in general – still, though, as I said last chapter, _I'm not a doctor. _If you notice something glaringly wrong with what I say, please, point it out, I'll be glad to correct it. Just don't insult me for my lack of knowledge; I'm trying my hardest to make things accurate.

**Important notes: **The following chapters take place in three different areas of time/space: _**Then, **Now, _and **_Now. _**They're all marked below, so pay attention to what happens in each. They all tie together as to what happened, and what's happening now because of it.

Yugi and Yami were separate last chapter. They aren't in some of this. Why? Because they're not separated _yet. _Hence the whole _**Then, **Now _and **_Now _**thing applying.

I think that's it…so, here's the update!

* * *

**Meltdown**

**Chapter 2: A bad start**

_**Then**_

Lazy morning sunlight spilled into the kitchen of the Mouto residence, Yugi Mouto stifling a yawn as he padded into the room and headed straight for the fridge. Loose, slightly too-big pyjamas trailed about the youth's ankles, golden bangs mussed adorably over drowsy violet eyes.

The Millennium Puzzle swung about Yugi's neck as he pulled open the fridge door, bending down to grab the milk. A brief flash of light glanced over the Item's surface; a chance beam of sunlight to a stranger first observing the piece, but from Yugi it prompted a sleepy smile and a dozy wave to the incorporeal form that was now lounging against the kitchen counter.

"Good morning, aibou." Yami's greeting was full of warmth and affection, the spirit's eyes bright with the kind of wakefulness Yugi could only _dream _of at that time in the morning.

"…'Morning…" Yugi went back to his morning ritual of preparing breakfast. Okay…so he'd fetched the milk, that meant he needed the cereal and the spoon and the bowl, not to mention a glass for his orange juice and-

Yami was watching him.

Yugi stood up from where he'd been rifling through the cereal cupboard, meeting his guardian's cerise gaze with clear violet. "You're awake."

"Yes." Yami nodded.

"And out of the Puzzle."

"Yes." Another nod.

"Watching me."

"Yes."

Yugi blinked. "Has the cereal got plans of world-domination then? The spoon? 'Cos 'jii-chan _did _mention he thought the cutlery might rise up against us one day -"

An amused smile curved Yami's lips. "Nothing's wrong, aibou."

Yugi persisted. "So there're no evil megalomaniacs plotting to take over the world in my kitchen, or anything like that? No-one planning to destroy the planet using the might of _Coco Pops _and Millennium Items combined? I can eat my breakfast in peace?"

Ruby eyes gleamed, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle stretching his muscles and smiling at his lighter half. "One would almost think you don't trust me, hikari."

"Oh, I trust _you." _Yugi went back to his cereal hunting. "It's the rest of the world and its annoying tendency of disturbing me that I happen to dislike."

His shadowy companion chuckled. "You grow cynical, aibou. Has someone disturbed your breakfast one too many times?"

A soft sigh, the hikari clambering back up to his feet and pouring his chosen cereal and milk into a bowl. "It's just…" He looked at Yami again, "it's just every time it looks as though our problems are over, every time we finish one lot of grief…something new _always _seems to come along. Isn't there an end to it all?"

"I…don't know, aibou." The pharaoh sounded thoughtful – considering. "I've never really thought about it that way. After a time…things just become habit, I assume, and you cease to question what comes your way. An unbroken chain."

"Yeah well…" Yugi returned to the fridge, bowing down to replace the milk, "I just wish someone would come along and _break _this little chain of ours for once."

Someone pounded on the kitchen door.

Yugi jumped, hitting his head off one of the fridge's shelves and letting out a curse that would have spoilt his innocent image had any of his classmates overheard it.

Yami grinned, ignoring the glare shot at him by his lighter half. He waved a casual hand at the back door. "You were saying, chibi ichi?"

Sending the best glower he possibly could at the spirit while nursing the lovely bump he could feel coming up on the back of his scalp Yugi went to answer the door, letting the object swing open so one Ryou Bakura could stumble across the threshold.

"Bakura's gone!"

"Um…" Yugi could only stare as Ryou went into a spiel of incomprehensible rambling, he and Yami blinking in confusion as the usually calm Brit completely lost his cool in front of them and eventually collapsed, crying, in a chair, burying his head in his arms on the table.

Hesitantly Yugi approached him, laying a soothing hand on his friend's shoulder. "There…it'll be alright Ryou, I'm sure of it. Bakura's disappeared before – you know him, he _always _comes back, even when you don't want him to."

"And don't I _know _it." Yami grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.

Yugi rolled his eyes heavenward, but returned his attentions to the still-sobbing Ryou. "When did he disappear?"

"Last week…" The gentle albino drew himself up, wiping away the tears that stained his pale cheeks. His voice was hoarse. "I…I didn't worry about it before…as you said…he always comes back." A trembling glance at Yugi. "But…last night…I-there was a – a _pain. _It felt as though someone had just reached inside my chest and _sliced _me and – and when I tried to go along my link with B-Bakura I just…"

"You just what?" Yugi's voice was soft.

"I just _fell." _Ryou shuddered, his words laced with deep horror. "Oh Yugi…it was _empty. _The place where Bakura is – inside…deep, deep inside – it had been cut away and there was nothing but nothing and I fell and I-" The boy was weeping again. "He's _gone_, Yugi. He's _gone, _and the place where he was hurts inside."

* * *

_Now_

Yami wasn't speaking to anyone. He'd woken up, earlier that morning, to find spring sunshine shining in through the windows of his private room and onto his face. Before even really thinking about it he'd requested the curtains be drawn slightly so the light wasn't shining in his eyes, and had been pleasantly surprised when a man dressed in white had obliged. They'd talked quietly together for a while, Yami really still too sleepy to notice what the man was asking him, the once-spirit only really taking note when he finally cottoned on to the fact the man was a _doctor, _and he was writing Yami's answers _down._

Anger had shot through him then and he'd struggled to sit up, Yami taking great offence at being taken advantage of while still under the effects of sleep and drugs. The doctor – _Ra eternally **curse **him – _had simply put something in the drip attached to his arm again, and Yami had went back to sleep.

He was really beginning to _hate _sedatives.

* * *

When Yami came to the second time, he carefully let his mind emerge from slumber before even _thinking _of opening his eyes, hiding ruby eyes under his naturally dark lashes while he listened, silent, to the low buzz of conversation that was going on just outside his room. How did he know the voices were outside of his room when he had his eyes shut? They were quiet, and they were muffled. If they'd been _inside _his room, _obviously _they would've been _louder._

"…Doctor, I really don't understand. Is our son mad, or isn't he?" It was that guy – the one who'd claimed to be his father the day before. He had a pleasant enough voice, Yami supposed, the sort a young child would long for to wrap them up in strong arms and carry them away from nightmares.

"Mr. Mouto -" Yami stifled a growl. That was the doctor. The rude, _arrogant- _Yami had to sharply remind himself to listen to the conversation that was going on – he could internally rant at the liar who'd duped him that morning _later._

"Mr. Mouto, Yami isn't '_mad', _per say. Yes…we believe he is suffering from psychosis, but this is to be in no way confused with insanity. Psychosis is a general term we use in psychology to describe a patient whose thoughts and perceptions are impaired. Psychosis covers hallucinations, delusions, personality changes…it's really quite a vague term."

"Then can't you be any more _specific?" _That was worry, laced with annoyance. Yami inwardly cheered at the last emotion he heard in his 'father's' voice – if he were him he'd quite happily _punch_ the bumbling _prat _of a professoriate. "Will Yami get better?"

"Most patients do." The doctor sounded soothing. "Mr. Mouto, Mrs. Mouto…your son has just woken up from an extraodoniarily long sleep. He's been 'out of it' for a long time, and dreaming. He's lost touch with reality for a while; it may take some time to ground him again."

"How long?" These two words were whispered so low Yami barely caught them, and by a woman. They sounded so heartbreakingly sad…it could only be the woman who had said she was his mother the other day. A twinge of guilt sparked to life inside of Yami then, but the former spirit pushed the unwelcome emotion away. It wasn't _his _fault he wasn't the woman's son, why should he pretend he was and lie to himself?

The doctor was speaking again. "I talked to your son this morning, Mrs. Mouto; he was just waking up from the sedatives we gave him yesterday. I don't think he quite awake when I questioned him, but I managed to withdraw some interesting answers." A long pause. "According to Yami, he's been living in a city called Domino, in Japan, for the last four years."

"_Japan?" _The woman sounded incredulous. "But we've never _been _to Japan! In fact, we've never left the EU except to go to Egypt!"

…_Egypt...?_

"Yes, well…" Papers shuffling, "Yami seemed quite determined he lived there. With his brother, Yugi – you remember he mentioned him yesterday? -, and grandfather, a Mr. Solomon Mouto."

"There is no-one in our family of that name." His 'father' was speaking again. "And Yami has no brother! A sister yes, and cousins that have been his friend since early childhood-"

"Why would Yami insist he has a brother?" The man's wife spoke. "He never showed any wish for another sibling…Doctor, Yami was always such a _content _child, you must believe me. His sister and he were the sweetest children any mother could wish for, and they played _happily _together and with their cousins. Never, _never _did my son express a wish for a brother."

The doctor pondered for a few moments. "Perhaps he never did. Maybe in Yami's subconscious one of his cousins exchanged a role and became as a brother to him…is there any particular one cousin Yami has always been close to?"

"Well…" Mrs. Mouto thought, "There's Seth. He and Yami were always tumbling about and arguing, but they were so close it was unbelievable! Sometimes, when they were little and you caught them unawares, you'd find them cuddling like two little lost kittens."

_Seth?! Oh no, I do **not – **_Yami pulled a face. _Oh, sweet **Nut…**I beg you this woman isn't talking about who I think she might be. And if she **is- **_the former pharaoh repressed a shudder; _he would **never **replace Yugi to me!_

"Seth?" There was the sound of scribbling. "I'll have to question Yami some more about that later. But for now…Mrs. Mouto, Mr. Mouto, I believe your son is suffering from the more delusional aspects of psychosis. From what your son said this morning the delusions seem to be a mixture of _primary _and _secondary _– meaning some arise from nowhere, and are not comprehensible in terms with Yami's usual thinking, and others have links to your son's background and beliefs. It is impossible to say right now though; we'll need to do a more thorough check on Yami's background. His overall delusion does not seem to fit in with any of the preset types we classify such disorders in, so he will simply fall under the 'unspecified' type, or at least until we can get some more answers out of him. Your son was…not too pleased this morning, when he became lucid enough to comprehend what I was actually asking."

"Yami was always a private boy." Mrs. Mouto's voice was quiet. "He always talked to us though, if there was a problem, but otherwise we respected his privacy."

"Hm." The doctor sounded only vaguely interested. "Well for now Mrs. Mouto, I'd suggest you and your husband go home. There really is nothing you can do here – as you can see, Yami is still asleep, and I do not recommend disturbing him. When he wakes up and speaks to us…then we'll see. It may be the case we'll have to call in his friends and other close family, try to _shock _a response from his mind."

"Right…" That was Mr. Mouto, again. "Can we at least go in and check on Yami, before we go? Since he's asleep?"

"Feel free to."

There was the sound of people moving, and the quiet _creak _of a door being pushed open. Yami hastily closed his eyes a little more – they'd strayed open, somewhat – and evened out his breathing, trying to look as not awake as physically possible.

Footsteps padded to the foot of his bed.

"…He looks so peaceful…" A muffled sob – oh, the lady wasn't _crying _again, was she? Guilt returned to poke Yami pointedly with its vengeful stick, right in the gut.

"Shh…" That was his 'father', quietly trying to soothe away his wife's tears. "He's not in a coma anymore Maria, we can be thankful for that."

"But he doesn't recognise us-!"

"He's alive, though." Bittersweet words. "He's walking, talking, breathing…he's not a _vegetable_ anymore – he's awake! Maria, I frankly don't _care _if Yami never recognises us ever again, I'm just glad our son's _alive _again."

"I…guess…" Trembling silence, then a little more determined. "Yes, you're right. But…I still can't dare but hope…"

"Only fools live in despair."

There was a few more moments of still, and then the sound of footsteps walking away again, and the door clicked shut.

Ruby eyes finally flickered open, and stared troubled into the dimness of his private room.

* * *

_**Then**_

Ryou was inconsolable. Yugi felt guilty as he sat there, vainly trying to comfort his sobbing friend, for even _daring _to still feel hungry – he hadn't actually _eaten _his breakfast after all, and now his cereal looked all soggy -, and for still having his yami settled comfortably within the Puzzle.

And then Ryou had stopped crying, and the kitchen had fallen deathly still.

"Ryou…" The albino didn't respond when Yugi laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Ryou, please talk to me."

A husky mumble from somewhere within the albino's arm's. "I don't want to talk."

"Ryou…_please." _Yugi was pleading. "You're worrying me."

"Go _away." _

Yugi flinched at the rebuke, but removed his hand. "Maybe if you talk to Yami and I, we can help. Isn't that why you came around here?"

"He doesn't quite know why he came around here himself shrimp, so it's pointless asking him."

Yugi stifled a gasp, jumping to his feet as a pale hand lazily pushed open the kitchen door he hadn't _quite _got around to closing, and a familiar personality strode in – recognisable even with its new body.

"Bakura!"

Yugi's yell did two things almost instantly. The first, Ryou sat up and stared with abject hope in his expression. The second, Yami immediately swapped places with Yugi in the body they shared, _glaring _at the thief with all his considerable strength.

A languid smirk settled itself across Bakura's features – Yugi just _didn't _want to know how Bakura had managed to secure a body for himself -, and the tomb-robber gave an exaggerated bow to Yami.

"Your _Majesty." _His tone _dripped _with sarcasm. "How magnificent your illustrious self looks in your courtly attire. May I inquire as to the maker?"

A faint tinge of red crept into Yami's cheeks – he was still clad in Yugi's pyjamas. Before he could let loose with a stinging retort though, Ryou had jumped to his feet and _slapped _the thief across the cheek.

"Where the _hell _have you been?!"

Bakura looked just as stunned as Yami.

"_What?"_

Normally docile brown eyes were _murderous. _"Where have you been?!" Ryou was _beyond _angry. "Have you _any _idea how worried I've been?!"

"I've been busy!" Bakura snapped. "What, you think all it took for me to stand here before you was snapping my fingers, a hop, skip and a jump?!"

"You could have _told _me!"

"No I could _not! _I was _busy, _yadounshi; I needed to concentrate!"

All the strength seemed to sag out of Ryou and he swayed, his yami catching him about the forearms and steadying him. "But the Ring…" His voice was quiet, "the Ring's been dead…all that time…"

Bakura smirked. "Oh I can solve _that _easily…" Long, pale fingers brushed over the gold hanging around Ryou's neck, and the Item instantly began to glow.

Three sets of eyes, two from the kitchen, one from a soulroom, looked up to stare at the former tomb-robber.

Ryou shook his head mournfully. "At times yami, I think I hate you."

* * *

_**Now**_

"Seto? Seto-nii?"

…_Mokuba…?_

Groaning, lashes flickered, sapphire eyes on the point of opening.

"Nii-sama?" It was a young boy's voice, heartbreakingly hopeful, his tone hesitant, almost afraid. "Seto?"

Another groan, changing rapidly into a hiss when cobalt orbs finally fluttered open, light burning away into delicate retinas. The eyes shut again, long lashes shutting out the terrible brightness for a few more precious seconds, before flickering open again, this time prepared for the daylight that met them.

Kaiba blinked, his vision still somewhat blurry, only to have it obscured nigh completely when something threw itself on his chest, arms wrapping tightly around the young CEO's neck.

"_Seto!"_

Kaiba gratefully buried his face into fluffy hair, black as a raven's wing, a half-smile touching the corner of his lips. "…Hello Mokuba."

A sigh of relief against his chest, the slender body entwined around his upper torso slackening with relief, then suddenly-

"_What did you go and do that for?!" _Mokuba pulled away, worried anger shining brightly in his blue-grey eyes. "I thought you were _dead _Seto and the doctor said that you were critically injured – I _heard _him _say _that nii-san so you can't deny it – and operated on you and you never told me where you were going that night and when Tea phoned I was-was- and then the _hospital-" _Mokuba drew in a shaky breath, tears glittering at the corner of his eyes. "They said you were fine but you might never-never ever- like _Yugi _and- oh Seto I've been so _worried!_" The near-teen flung his arms around his brother's neck again, sobbing openly into the hospital gown the elder Kaiba wore.

Kaiba held him quietly, stroking the black hair nestled under his chin and murmuring 'shh' again and again to the sobbing boy till the tears stopped and Mokuba pulled away, the brunette's gown now a sodden mess.

Mokuba swallowed. "…What happened, Seto? Why did you go there that night?"

"I-" Kaiba ran a hand through his chocolate hair distractedly, blue eyes travelling around the room he was in, searching for any form of a distraction - curtains, a t.v, flowers, bedside cabinet, strong smell of disinfectant, a drip, bandages, clipboard, door, chatter of people moving to and fro in a corridor outside; not to mention the hideously uncomfortable white gown he was wearing…- and suddenly sharpened. "What am I doing in a _hospital_?" Barely contained anger was evident in the last word, Kaiba's knuckles' going unnaturally white as he fisted the sheets of his bed – which, the CEO suddenly noted with distaste, crackled in that distinctly 'hospitally' fashion starched hospital – and _only _hospital – sheets have.

Mokuba swallowed again. "Seto, I know you don't like hospitals but you were really ill and-" the black-haired boy had to stop for a moment, a lump rising in his throat, his voice husky when he spoke again, the earlier tears beginning to return again, "-they thought you were going to _die_. Yami-"

"Good morning, Kaiba-san." A cheery, female doctor breezed into the room, stethoscope round her neck and clipboard perched expertly in one hand. "How are you feeling after your return to civilisation?"

Blue eyes stared at her stonily.

The doctor ignored the glare, continuing her approach to Kaiba's bed. "…Hello Mokuba. Didn't I tell you he'd be fine?" The question was directed at the boy, and Mokuba nodded, if a tad reluctantly.

"…Yeah…"

"Then you know I'll always keep my word." A pleased nod, and the woman turned her attentions back to Seto. "How's your head, Kaiba-san? You took rather a nasty bump…"

Still, the icy expression in Kaiba's eyes remained. "_You're _the doctor. _You _tell _me. _Isn't that what you're paid to do?"

Mokuba winced, but the doctor didn't so much as bat an eyelid, in fact, she smiled. "I see your wonderful temperament has returned then, Kaiba-san." She lifted the patient's notes that were kept at the bottom of the brunette's bed, running a practised eye over them quickly. "You've got to have regular doses of ibuprofen and other painkillers every day for the next few weeks – though we won't have to keep you in hospital that long." _Another_ smile, this one directed firmly at Kaiba. "Something you'll be pleased to hear – no? You should be able to be discharged at the end of the week, as long as there are no more problems."

"_When _is 'at the end of the week'? That's rather a vague term from a professoriate." Kaiba's tone was still cold, but at least he was _talking._

"Hmm…" The female thought. "Probably Saturday, though I can't say for sure." She deposited his notes at the bed's foot again. "Really, Kaiba-san, you've been quite lucky, considering the extent of your injuries. Many, many others would never have recovered from the wounds you sustained, or if they did, not half as quickly as you have done." She quickly scribbled something down on her clipboard. "I see no problems here." She paused, glancing up suddenly. "Oh! I almost forgot. You may leave this room to visit your friends if you wish, Kaiba-san; I trust you know not to overexert yourself." A last smile graced the woman's lips, and she turned smoothly and left.

"…'Friends'…?" sapphire eyes turned to Mokuba.

The pre-teen threaded his hands nervously in his lap, blue-grey eyes refusing to look up at his older brother. "…Nii-san…I…you weren't the only one injured that night."

* * *

**Shadow: **I…simply _cannot _believe I updated this so effortlessly. I sat down, I researched, and I wrote. Like that. I'd click my fingers, but I can't actually do that… I'm…I think I'm speechless. (gapes) I _also _finally came up with a plot I actually like for this… (head spins) I mustn't be feeling well… 


	3. Mirror of me

**Shadow: **I have a headache… (grumbles) More babble from me at the bottom?

**Important notes: **The following chapters take place in three different areas of time/space: _**Then, **Now, _and **_Now. _**They're all marked below, so pay attention to what happens in each. They all tie together as to what happened, and what's happening now because of it.

Yugi and Yami were separate last chapter. They aren't in some of this. Why? Because they're not separated _yet. _Hence the whole _**Then, **Now _and **_Now _**thing applying.

* * *

**Meltdown**

**Chapter 3: Mirror of me**

_**Then**_

"You _will _help them split."

"I bloody well will _not!"_

"You'll help Yami get a body of his own or I give him the Ring!"

Bakura's eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't _dare."_

Ryou crossed his arms over his chest, his expression stony. "_Watch _me."

So was the conversation of one Ryou Bakura and his yami, both white-haired young men – though the adjective was debatable in the case of one of them – sitting on a couch in the Mouto's living room, Yami and Yugi having left them to go get changed into some proper clothes. (It was rather hard to retain some dignity while wearing sky-blue pyjamas with mini Kuribohs printed on them.) Ryou had long since drawn an explanation out of his darker half on Bakura's whereabouts for the previous week, and on the exact way in which the former tomb-robber had gained a corporeal form of his own.

And then promptly demanded Bakura help Yami do the same.

"The Ring is mine!" Bakura was angry. "I _stole _the damn thing – it rightfully belongs to me! Whoever you give it to – it will _always _return to its true owner!"

"That may have been true _once_, Bakura…" Yami had re-entered the room, clad in his usual leathers, "but no longer anymore. _Ryou _is the owner of the Millennium Ring in this time; the Item chose _him _to bear it. You were merely the parasite that tagged alongside within the gold. Now you have a body of your own…" A slight pause as the pharaoh's gaze travelled across Bakura's form thoughtfully, "the Ring's is solely Ryou's. It will obey his wishes, and accept being given away if that is his true intent."

A snarl from the white-haired thief. "Ryou cannot wield the Ring! He does not know how to _use _it!"

"And whose fault is that?" Yami snapped suddenly. "You should not have closed your hikari's mind whilst working magic! Have you taught him _anything _about the Ring?"

"I can find things." Ryou's voice was soft. "_Without _Bakura's aid. The darker aspects to the Item though – the stealing of souls, the placing of those souls in inanimate objects…" The Brit trailed off, looking to the pharaoh pleadingly. "I never _wanted _to know. I still don't."

"If you are now the sole bearer of the Ring, a knowledge of everything your Item is capable of would be extremely beneficial to your health and state of mind, Ryou." Yami smiled soothingly, sitting beside the light. "Such knowledge would give you control over your Item – you need never use it aggressively like _others." _He shot a pointed look at Bakura. "Magic is safer to all when it is tamed."

Bakura hissed, bristling at both being so casually ignored and rebuffed. "You take it for granted I will willingly give up the Ring, _pharaoh_."

"You have no choice in the matter." Crimson eyes were hard. "Ryou is the bearer of the Ring now. Just _try _taking it off him."

A poisonous glare had the tomb-robber stalking forwards, reaching out to snatch the Ring from about his hikari's neck-

And promptly being blasted back a few feet as magic shot out of the Ring, flinging Bakura back to thud into a nearby wall.

"Ow…" Dark brown eyes were slightly unfocused as Bakura stood up, sharpening in sudden annoyance. "What bloody well _happened?"_

Yami looked bored, tucking his legs under his body on the seat and leaning back into his chair. "You tried to take the Millennium Ring from its rightful owner; the Ring retaliated."

"How come it never did that when someone attempted to take the Ring from _me?!"_

"You were a thief." A careless shrug from the pharaoh. "You _stole _the Ring from its true possessor. You expect it to defend one who took it by unfair means? True, you laid some claim to it – they do say possession is nine-tenths of the law -, but it will always obey a true inheritor above you." Yami smirked suddenly, stretching languidly in his seat. "The Ring is Ryou's, tomb-robber, and there is absolutely _nothing _you can do about it."

Bakura hissed angrily, glaring venomously at the one who had once ruled Egypt. But…there was nothing he could do…His gaze shifted to Ryou, who promptly laid a protective hand on the Item about his neck.

"Well, yami? You know I have no qualms about giving up the Ring. Would you rather I kept it and you help Yami to gain a body of his own, or shall I just give it to Yugi now?"

The low growl emitted from the former tomb-robber's throat was murderous. His glare's intensity seemed to have doubled, and then doubled again, sliding from the golden Ring around Ryou's throat to the narrowed cat-like eyes of the pharaoh.

Ruby eyes were taunting, Yami knowing he'd won yet again.

_Damn them **both! **_

"_Fine!" _Bakura spat the word out, internally vowing revenge. "I will assist pharaoh in getting a body of his own, but the Ring is _never to leave your sight." _This was aimed at Ryou. "As long as that Item is 'yours', omote, you _keep _it." There was no way in _hell _Yami was ever going to get his hands on it.

"Deal." Ryou nodded.

Yami smiled, satisfied, sliding off his seat and to his feet. "Good…I'll tell Yugi."

* * *

_Now_

Yami had a visitor. He had absolutely no idea what the person looked like, what they sounded like…but he knew he had a visitor. He could hear them breathing quietly, and his senses told him that they were standing at the foot of his bed, watching him 'sleep'.

Yami had recently taken to pretending to be asleep whenever he woke up. His sleeping pattern was all over the place, and his days and nights were all disjointed due to his 'coma'. Pretending to be asleep stopped the doctors from questioning him, testing him, his 'parents' being forced upon him. They all left after a little while, either too bored or too busy to wait for Yami to wake up.

Except this one visitor…

"I know you're awake."

The voice startled Yami, causing him to jump slightly and thoroughly ruin his already ruined acting. Inwardly cursing Yami opened his eyes, sitting up in his bed and glaring at his guest.

"Who are you and what do you want?" His voice was less than friendly.

A pretty girl looking to be about his own (physical) age gazed back at him. She had long, waist-length black hair streaked with red, and she looked…_familiar…_

"My name is Ciara, and I've been told to talk to you."

"And if I don't want to talk to you?" Yami was still hostile.

The girl's voice was matter-of-fact. "Then I shall oh-so-pleasantly sit here and stare at you. I can stare for quite long you know, and I've been told it can be quite annoying. It's no difference to me whether you're unfriendly or not; I'm used to it."

Yami scowled. "You think you're going to get me to talk to you by _staring _at me?"

A bright smile. "Why would I need to stare? We're having a conversation now, are we not?"

"Stop being aggravating."

"Stop being antisocial."

"Stop – agh!" Yami flung his hands up in the air. "Who _are _you?"

"I told you." The girl sat on the end of his bed, smiling at him. "My name's Ciara. Surely you remember _that? _I told you barely two minutes ago."

"I _know _your name is Ciara; I meant – oh, Ra, I don't _know _what I meant!" Yami drew his legs up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them and resting his head on his knees. His voice was tired when he spoke again. "What are you doing here? You said you had been told to talk to me…but all the doctors know I'm not talking to anyone. My so-called 'parents' know I'm refusing to even be in the same room as them while I'm 'awake' – what are you here for?"

"I'm supposed to ask you stuff." Ciara mimicked her companion's actions, brushing messy hair out of her eyes as well. "They hoped you might remember things and speak to _me. I _told them 'no, if Yami's being stubborn he won't talk to _anyone' _but nooo…" She sighed. "The teachers gave me some time off school to come see you specially; I'm missing Double Maths right about now."

"Why did they give you the time off school to come see me 'specially'?" The former pharaoh's voice was quiet.

"I should really be the one asking _you_ questions." Ciara looked slightly uncomfortable, glancing down at her hands, at anywhere in the room but Yami. "The doctor told me to."

Yami snorted. "The man's an idiot; feel free to ignore him. I know _I _do."

A smile twitched at the corner of the girl's lips, her voice a tad drier when she spoke again. "He said." Uncertainly, violet eyes looked Yami's way, meeting his gaze for the first time since she'd entered the room. "He didn't sound very happy about it."

_Violet…_

Yami found himself staring at Ciara, suddenly unable to speak. The girl had the clearest violet eyes he had ever seen, friendly and open and approachable, tinged with a wisdom and humour only years could bring.

Ciara, Yami had to wryly observe, _could be Yugi's older sister. _Which explained why she looked so familiar. It was almost like looking in a mirror, except Ciara didn't have her hair spiked, or blonde bangs about her face. Oh, and she had _slightly _more feminine features.

"Ciara, please answer my question." Yami's voice was calm. "Why did your teachers give you the time off school to come see me 'specially'?"

His companion bit her lip, looking away guiltily. "I'm not supposed to say. You'll lose your temper and get angry and throw me out of the room."

"And I will be sedated, fall asleep, and have a new guest chucked in this room to help me 'remember' my past." Yami's voice was sarcastic. "It would just start this vicious cycle all over again…there'd be no point to it."

A whisper. "I still can't say."

"Then I'll tell _you. _You-"

"I'm your sister." Ciara blurted the words out, cutting off Yami mid-sentence. "Yami, _please _don't be angry! You've been in a coma so long – we didn't think you'd wake up! When mum and dad came home and said you were awake I was so happy – you stupid, _stupid _boy! You worried us, and you're _still _worrying us, and Yami why won't you _recognise _me?!" The girl was practically in tears. "It's just not _fair. _It was a stupid accident, and Lucas got expelled for it, and I'm not supposed to be saying any of this and _I don't care! _It's not fair – _it's not! _How can you not recognise me, Yami?! I'm your sister! I'm your _twin!"

* * *

_

_**Now**_

Kaiba cursed as he lost his balance for the god-knows-what time, smacking into the wall of the hospital corridor. Continuously banging oneself off solid brick and plaster is never the most beneficial of activities, and the bruises were beginning to build up quite nicely on the brunette's arm. Reluctantly the CEO had to admit perhaps maybe he _wasn't _quite as 'fine' as he'd said he was. But he'd be _damned _before he asked for assistance of any kind.

"Seto…" Kaiba could see his little brother was dying to ask if he was alright again, but Mokuba restrained himself, motioning down the hospital corridor to the left. "They're this way."

He cheerfully seemed oblivious to the fact he hadn't actually informed his nii-san of just who _they _were. Not that his older sibling didn't have a sneaking suspicion of course.

A clump of dread Kaiba would never admit to possessing formed in his stomach.

_Kami-sama, not **them…**_

"In here…" Mokuba tugged on his brother's arm (the non-bruised one), pulling him into a curtained ward. As soon as they entered there was a scuffle of attention, brown orbs staring at him wide-eyed.

"Kaiba!"

Ryou was clearly startled to see him, but Kaiba ignored him, blue gaze sweeping past the albino and to the two visible occupants of the room.

Ryou quickly interrupted him before he could say anything. "I-they put them all together, Kaiba-san, because they were all suffering immense energy drain and injuries of the same type… It made it easier to watch them…You were put somewhere else because of your status - I would've come to check on you but Mokuba said-" The boy faltered and fell silent for a few seconds, watching the brunette worriedly. "Kaiba-san, did the doctor even say you could be up? You were hit rather badly and even Yami's-"

"Where is he?" Kaiba's head was bent, his voice lowered.

"I-what? Kaiba-san, I really think you should-"

"Where. _Is. _He?" Little more than a hiss.

Ryou raised a hesitant hand to point to the curtained cubicle at the end of the ward.

* * *

_**Then**_

The Shadow Realm.

It came as no surprise to Yami really, that Bakura had led him here. The thief had always been obsessed with the Shadow Realm and its hidden strengths, determined to find them all and wield them, become the ultimate master of the Darkness. Yugi had been left behind in the normal world with Ryou, Bakura present in the Shadow Realm as himself, Yami as a spirit.

_The pull of the Shadows…_

Yami stretched out a hand, frowning when a tendril of the darkness about them wrapped about the outstretched limb.

_It feels…**thin…**_

The currents swirling about his form in the Realm were stronger than usual, as if being sucked away by some greater power, the Shadows _stretched _to cover space that would otherwise be left empty.

"If you've _quite _finished petting your kittens." Bakura's voice was sour. He didn't want to be here, he definitely _disliked _being _forced _to be here, and he _really _didn't see why it was the _pharaoh _he had to help, of all people.

"I'm coming, I'm coming…" Yami sighed, dispersing the Shadows gathered in his hand and following off the other spirit. The thinness of his Realm he put to one side in his mind, to be gone over again later. It was probably just a natural fluctuation of the Shadows or something…but he'd still have to check.

They were going to the deepest, darkest part of the Realm – that they'd managed to uncover so far - where the Shadows were strongest; Bakura claiming they needed the sheer power and pressure there to slice the bond between yami and hikari, yami and Item. The former bond was easily reparable, but it needed to broken all the same so as to create a new body for Yami. The pharaoh himself didn't even really want to think about the awesome amount of power it would take to shatter a bond between a soul and an Item, never mind two souls…

Bonds shared between people were perhaps some of the most strong in existence. When hearts were tied together, the world was but a blip on the radar of the terrifying strength that could be released. When souls, the deepest, most personal part of a mortal, were wound around each other, merged, and then broken…what kind of power would be released?

"You know…" Yami couldn't help but let out a mutter as he trailed Bakura, "we're unlucky you didn't kill yourself."

"Can it, _pharaoh_." Bakura still in a non-too pleasant mood. He stopped suddenly, and Yami not really paying all that much attention, walked straight into him. Bakura glared. "Can't you watch where the _bloody_ hell you're _going_, baka?" He didn't give the other spirit a chance to reply, pointing roughly downwards – to the…er…'floor' part of the Shadows. "We're here. _Sit."_

Yami bristled at the command. "Why should I?"

A roll of amber eyes. "Because if you _don't, _baka no pharaoh,after you've split from both Yugi and the Puzzle, you will fall over. _Hard. _And I refuse to be blamed for you arriving back to your hikari with a gigantic bruise covering your _annoying_ little face."

"It's simply _touching, _tomb-robber, how much you care." Yami followed the other's brusque advice, taking a seat. "You can hear the kindness _oozing _from your voice."

"Your sarcasm wounds me." Bakura was off, drawing a rough circle around Yami in a trail of flashing bronze, red and gold.

The pharaoh followed his movements with a curious gaze. "What're you doing _now_?"

The thief didn't answer, merely halting and stretching a hand out to the other. "Give me your Puzzle."

"_What?! _No way!" Protective hands were laid on the golden Item.

"_Give me the damn Puzzle, pharaoh_." Bakura was getting annoyed again. "I'm not going to steal it! What use would it be to me? You left the real one with Yugi, remember? The one you wear is but a shadow of the blood-gold."

Yami was still suspicious. "What are you going to do with it?"

"I am going to take it, dump it on whatever constitutes as the ground here approximately two metres away from you, and draw another sparkly circle around it with my magic." Bakura glared again. "Now _give me the frickin' Puzzle!"_

Extremely reluctantly, Yami handed over his Item, watching all the while as Bakura did what he'd said he would, and stepped back. Now Yami and his Puzzle were in two separate circles. The thief gave another order:

"Reinforce my circles with you own magic, and then do it again with the Shadows."

White noise seemed to fill the space inside the circle Yami sat in as he did as he was commanded, static crackling about him and making his skin tingle. The magic _buzzed, _the Millennium Puzzle flashing brightly in its own ring in response. As Yami continued to increase the strength of the magic surrounding himself and the Puzzle his Item flared brilliantly, shooting out a single beam that smacked straight into the circle around Yami, the two barriers connected together by a beam of golden-white light and magic.

Bakura watched, fascinated despite himself. When he'd done that with the Shadow-Ring, the bond between the Item and himself hadn't even been _half _as bright… He quickly shook his head, erecting a quick magical defence about himself and calling out to the other spirit loudly, knowing fine well it would be difficult for Yami to hear over the crackling buzz his barrier would be producing. "Break the beam!"

"_What?" _Ruby eyes looked at him, confused.

"_Break the beam!" _Bakura pointed at the light that connected Yami and the Shadow-Puzzle. "Use the Shadows as a knife to cut the beam!"

Again, Yami did as he was told, calling to the Shadows with his mind and forming it into a keen blade that hovered over the light beam. The darkness was only too willing to do as he ordered, and a knife deadlier than any mortal-crafted blade was born from the Shadows. It waited, poised, as Yami smoothed it with his will, then when its master commanded, sliced down.

Out in the normal world, Yugi Mouto cried out in pain as Yami's soul was torn from the body they once shared.

* * *

_Now_

Yami stared nonplussed at the crying girl sitting at the foot of his bed. Ciara was obviously heartbroken – if she wasn't, she was a damn good actor – and the former pharaoh had no idea how to comfort her. Every instinct in him screamed against him saying he had a sister, even if it was to ease the girl's crying. Besides, if he did that, he'd be lying to himself as well as her, and that would hurt more in the long-run.

"Ciara…" Hopeless violet looked at him, and Yami had to avert his gaze. "Ciara, I'm sorry I can't tell you what you want to hear; I truly am."

"It's…" A hiccup, Ciara drying her eyes and trying to compose herself. "It's okay." Her voice was husky, cracked, her face flushed and eyes still bright. Tear-tracks stained her cheeks. "Do you have a tissue?"

Yami tossed her a wad from the dispenser on his bedside cabinet – all the wards had them, and they were handy for sniffling guests. He should know…the cleaner had had to refresh his store three times – that he had been conscious for – because of the one who claimed she was his mother. The one who would be Ciara's mother…

_Like mother, like daughter…_

The girl dried her eyes, brushing her long hair back off of her face and generally tidying herself up. "I'm sorry about that…" She licked her lips again, slightly nervous. "Are you going to throw me out now?"

Yami looked at how quietly for a few seconds, then gave a nonchalant shrug, leaning back against the metal rungs of his bed's headboard. "You break the monotony; if I don't talk to you I either stare at the wall all day or sleep."

His 'sister' smiled faintly. "Glad to know I'm so much appreciated."

"Hn…"

An awkward silence fell over the two teens.

After a few minutes, Ciara broke it again. "So…what's it like in here?"

Yami smiled bitterly. "They think you're mad."

"…Oh…"

The awkward silence fell again.

Bored, Yami began to rifle through his bedside cabinet, searching for some sweets that had arrived for him a few days beforehand, the nurse merely saying they were from a girl called Salena. Talking of which…

"Do you know anyone called Salena?" Yami leant back on his haunches, resting his hands on his knees. "She sent me some chocolates."

"Salena?" Ciara glanced up. "She's our little cousin -" The girl winced when Yami snorted, but continued regardless, "- she's Seth's little sister."

"How old's she?"

"Um…she's twelve on July the seventh."

"Right…" Yami went back to his rummaging, frowning as the chocolates continued to elude him. There was all manner of strange things kept in this cabinet – 'personal items' his 'parents' had brought him – and he recognised none of it. A deck of ordinary playing cards tumbled down from where they'd been perched on top of a pile of worn books, a familiar tingle racing through his nerves as his hand brushed them.

_That's strange…_

Slightly hesitant, Yami stretched out a hand and picked the deck up, sliding the cards out of the box and flipping through the four suits absent-mindedly. Idly he shuffled them, selecting four cards at random and laying them face-down on his bed. After neatly placing the remaining cards beside them he turned the four over, not in the least surprised to find four aces looking straight back up at him.

Ciara let out a soft breath, awed. "Wow…"

Yami merely sighed, sliding the aces back into the deck and shuffling the pile again. He glanced up at the one who had said she was his sister.

"Hey….are you any good at games?"

* * *

**Notes on Ciara: **Lord…this girl has gone through too many name changes before this got updated. Eventually I appealed to my friends, threw them a list, and said 'pick one!' Ciara can be either pronounced _kee-ARR-ah _or _see-ARR-ah –_ I'm working with the latter pronunciation. It's of Irish/Gaelic origin, and means 'black'. It can also be traced back to the Italian _Chiara, _which means 'light'.

**Notes on Salena: **_sah-LEE-nah. _It's apparently of Hindi origin, and is a variant of the Greek _Selena, _which means 'the moon'. Salena's birthday…(grins) If anyone picks up on what I was hinting at with it, let me know.

**Shadow: **The only parts I like out of this _entire _chapter are the very beginning and the very end. (claps hand to forehead) I _still _have a mother-of-all-headaches headache, and I'm supposed to be doing Art and Product Design coursework, due in Monday and Wednesday respectively. (groans) I'm not going to get it done now though…I'm off to go _sleep. _On thing though...are these chapters okay in length? After writing WAWOTW, these chapters seem uncommonly _short _to me. But then...it may just be me. Or WAWOTW could be too long. Or something...(mutters) This isn't helping my head.


	4. Coming besides

**Shadow: **Yet again we must applaud Shadow on her utter inability to get _anything _done. (sighs) People who read a lot of my stuff (or just look at my profile) know that I try to update at least once a month, and have been doing so….for five months now? Well, this month I was supposed to upload WAWOTW but _did _I?

Short answer: _Nope._

First two weeks of April I was busy with coursework all due in before I broke up. The two weeks after that I was broken up and in _Spain – _hey, at least I got the chapter outline done there – and just recently? _Pft. _I'm back in with the – you have important exams next month after your birthday!

…At times, I hate life…

**Important notes: **The following chapters take place in three different areas of time/space: _**Then, **__Now, _and _**Now. **_They're all marked below, so pay attention to what happens in each. They all tie together as to what happened, and what's happening now because of it.

Yugi and Yami were separate last chapter. They aren't in some of this. Why? Because they're not separated _yet. _Hence the whole _**Then, **__Now _and _**Now **_thing applying.

Bakura has a bit of a mouth in this chapter. You have been warned.

**Meltdown**

**Chapter 4: Coming besides**

_Now_

Nurse Teresa Barnes was late for her rounds after her morning break. Quickly tying some of her flyaway brown hair back she dashed down the corridors of the hospital where she worked trying _vainly_ not to bump into anyone and further hold herself back, heading for the private wards. First stop:-

_Mouto, Yami_

A handsome teenager looked up at her as she entered his ward, smiling lopsidedly from his perch on the edge of his bed, cards spread across the sheets.

"Quick light?"

Yami knew the woman smoked. Though it was hospital policy for medical staff to change out of their scrubs should they want a cigarette, smoke still clung faintly to Teresa's hair and skin as she moved about. Nurse Barnes had been assigned him on her rounds a few days back. Yami liked her; she was a pleasant, friendly woman, and didn't patronise him.

"Yeah..." The young nurse smiled apologetically, moving over to his bed. "I don't usually smoke at work – even in breaks -, but I woke up late and couldn't have one this morning." Teresa liked this polite, quiet youth. Yami was so unlike the other boys his age, and he was always friendly and kind…to the nurses and general staff, anyway. He seemed to hold an exceptionally strong dislike for his personal doctor, and he _hated _the hospital psychiatrists and psychologists with vim. "I've been dying for a smoke all day."

"They'll end up killing you, you know." Yami quietly gathered up his cards, stacking them in a neat pile on the table to the side of his bed.

"I know." Teresa carefully took Yami's blood pressure and temperature, unhooking the appropriate instruments from where they hung at the foot of the bed. "I used to smoke a lot more, but I'm slowly weaning myself off them now. Down to less than five a day generally; hopefully I can quit altogether soon."

"All the best with that." Yami craned his head over to look at the numbers the nurse was writing on his chart. "So. Am I likely to die from a heart attack anytime soon?"

Teresa laughed. "No; no heart attacks for you. You're in wonderful physical health for someone who not so long surfaced from a coma, Yami. How's your physio going?"

A shrug. "I bend; I stretch. I limp back to bed one great big hurt. Apparently that's good?" All in deadpan.

Teresa snorted. "It's for your own good."

"Daily torture's healthy?"

"Ah, _pish. _Would you rather your muscles deteriorated from lack of use?"

"As compared to them deteriorating from _over_use? Well…"

Teresa laughed, hooking Yami's chart back where it belonged, grinning when her patient smiled at her again. "You…you're utterly hopeless, you know that?"

"I'm a lost cause." Was the adroit reply.

* * *

_**Then**_

"Stupid _pharaoh_; stupid _Ring_; stupid _bloody_ frickin' _hikari_-"

Ryou and Yugi _heard _Bakura before they saw him. The tomb-robber's mutters spread from the centre of nowhere…and then the Shadows followed, creeping along the walls of the Mouto living room and pushing back the now afternoon sunshine.

The tomb-robber stepped from the darkness, one of his monsters at his side. The stench of decay was awful…Ryou recognised the creature immediately – it was Bakura's Earl of Dark Demise – but why-?

"_Yami!" _Yugi was up on his feet and heading for the Earl before he was thinking straight, gaze locked on the crumpled form that the monster was carrying in its rotting arms.

Bakura flung his arm out, effectively halting the boy's motion in its tracks. Amber eyes looked down, cold. "Do you _want _to end up as Zombie-bait, shrimplet? Or did baka Pharaoh teach you _nothing _of the Shadows as he criticises me so strongly for?"

Yugi hastily took a few steps backwards as Bakura's Earl _leered _at him over its master's shoulder. "I…Yami taught me." His voice was quiet. "I just…"

The tomb-robber snorted. "He didn't teach you very _well _then. What fool are you, to rush at a monster not of your own summoning?! I should just let you got eaten…"

Ryou frowned as Yugi's spirit crumpled. "_Bakura!" _His tone was sharp. "Stop that and just put – have Yami put down on the sofa!"

His yami scowled at him. "Hikari _dearest." _Sarcasm rang in the albino's voice. "Your wish is my command." He nodded a head at the Earl behind him, bored. "You heard the brat. Dump the baka pharaoh on the sofa and _go."_

Ryou hastily covered his mouth as the Earl lumbered past him, suppressing the urge to retch as the scent of decomposing flesh filled his nostrils. Yugi, at his side, let out a soft moan of disgust – that _thing _was touching Yami! Oh…

The two hikaris breathed a sigh of relief (and fresh air) when the monster vanished from the room, Bakura banishing the Shadows with him. Yugi, grateful, stumbled over to the sofa and his darker half's side.

Yami was fast, fast asleep, curled up where he had been laid. His skin was a little more tan than Yugi was used to seeing it – but a little paler than he'd expected, considering Yami had been Egyptian and all -, his hair a little darker, but otherwise…he seemed exactly the same as he had been as a spirit, albeit now in flesh and blood.

Fondly, Yugi stretched out a hand, brushing golden-blonde bangs back off the pharaoh's face. Yami smiled slightly in his sleep at the comforting action, letting out a soft murmur before slipping back into the very depths of slumber.

Oh, inside of him _ached-_

"Why's he asleep?" Yugi's question came out sharply.

Bakura shrugged apathetically. "He's exhausted. Big magic takes big energy, simple enough physics for you?"

Yugi frowned. "But how can he sleep? Doesn't he hurt-?"

"Like _hell,_ midget." Bakura glanced away. "As you will you if I assume if you go by _my _omote's reaction to the split…"

Ryou had the grace to blush at that point.

Yugi for once ignored them, concerned only with his other half. Carefully, he pulled the Puzzle's chain over his head, slipping it over Yami's. The Item, settling itself comfortably there, began to glow.

Bakura's head shot up so quickly at the light he nearly gave himself whiplash. His voice was indignant. "How come _he _doesn't get blasted across the room?!"

* * *

_Now_

Mid-afternoon, and Yami was alone in his ward. Ciara had visited him the day before, had apologised and said she wouldn't be able to make it that day due to an after-school orchestra practice. Upon querying the girl as to what instrument she played Ciara had flashed him a smile –

"_Drums."_

"_You? Drums? I never thought…" Yami grinned suddenly. "You have drums in orchestras?"_

"_Yup." The girl who said she was his sister stretched out lazily at the foot of his bed. "'Xcept they call them 'percussion' for sheer snobbery's sake."_

And…now he was bored. Yami sighed, sweeping the cards spread about his bed back into a stack again. There _were _only so many games of 'Patience' you could play before you longed to throw your deck across the room in a version of 'Fifty-two card pickup'. Although Yami was loathe to admit it, he was beginning to miss when Ciara wasn't there. She was a nice, friendly girl who reminded him still so very much of Yugi, and she brightened up his otherwise quite dull days. Again, like 'Patience', there was only so much baiting of the doctors you could put up with.

So he put the cards away, and pulled out a jigsaw from his cabinet. It was a five thousand piece one…so it'd probably last longer than cards.

…Then again…

"Yami?"

Startled, Yami lifted his head from where he'd been arranging the jigsaw pieces on his table (he'd already found the four corners and half of the left side), surprised to see a small girl with her head stuck around his door.

"Yes…?"

The girl smiled, trotting into his room. She was a pretty little thing, looking to be about ten years old, with a mass of coal-black curls and grey-blue eyes. A pad of some sort was clutched importantly to her chest, and her smile was trusting and friendly.

"I'm not supposed to be here;" she cheerfully informed Yami, clambering onto a chair beside his bed, "Mum says you don't know anybody anymore but she's here with Auntie Marie anyways. She said not to bother you because you were still really, really ill – but you don't _look _really, really ill, Yami." A pout. "Are you faking? Because it's an awfully long time to be away from home and everybody's still kinda upset… I missed you while you were in here."

"Um…" Yami looked at the girl blankly. "I know you…?"

"Yuh-huh." A bright nod. "Mum said you had forgotten stuff – even like who your mum and dad were and _everything. _Which is kinda silly. And I'm supposed to look _up _to you still, I think. Well, no-one's said anything else, really. And big brother's too antisocial to be much of a role model, apparently. Seth doesn't really care though… Oh! He said I had to tell you he said you were an idiot." A decisive nod. "And give you this." She held out the pad. "He said you forgot to get it back off him before you banged your head and he thought you might want it. He doesn't want you to be _too _bored when you're recovering, and he said that could be a while due to how awkward you are." She dangled her legs over the chair's edge. "My name's Salena, Yami. Seth said I had to tell you that since you'd most likely have forgot. You're my cousin and Seth's my big brother – but they wouldn't let him come because they're _mean. _And I shouldn't really be here either but I am so _there." _A pause. "Don't tell my mum?"

Yami smiled, taking the pad and shaking his head. "I won't tell your mum, Salena – I doubt I'll know who she is. Are you the one who sent me the chocolates?"

"Yeah…did you like 'em?"

"Very much, thankyou. And…thankyou for bringing me this," Yami waved the pad, "and thank your big brother for me too."

Salena beamed, sliding off her chair and climbing up onto her cousin's bed. Flinging her arms around the crimson-eyed teen's shoulders she kissed Yami on the cheek. "Love you, Yami." She cuddled into the boy's chest. "Get well soon?"

"I'll be out of this hospital as soon as I can get past the doctors." Yami promised.

* * *

_**Now**_

Kaiba was secretly quite impressed on how well he was able to stalk down the small ward to the cubicle at the end, even weaker than usual and not all that steady on his feet. Not that he'd doubted his ability to be able to do that in the first place, of course. No…he was Seto Kaiba, and there was no man alive that could stand in his way – well, there was _one, _maybe two if you included his 'light' but –

A sleepy voice from the bed he was passing. "Ne…Kaiba-kun…?"

The brunette stopped dead.

Yugi Mouto's way-too-wide amethyst eyes were cracked open to look at him, lavender irises hazy from sleep and exhaustion. "What are you…?" The slight teen trailed off, raising an arm to block the overhead lights shining directly into his eyes. "Where…?"

"You're in hospital, Yugi." Kaiba was more grateful than he'd like to admit to Ryou at that point, as the albino moved to the spiky-haired duelist's side, voice gentle and soothing. "How're you feeling?"

"…Like I've just been ran over by a truck." The replies were getting quicker as Yugi came to his senses. "And then ran over again, just for good measure."

Ryou laughed. "Do you want some water or something?" He looked up at Kaiba. "We should really call the doctor-"

"Mokuba." Kaiba didn't even need to look at his little brother to know the boy had run off, light feet pattering down the corridor to fulfil his unspoken command.

"…Oh." Ryou blinked, and looked back down at Yugi. "Right. Well…"

But Yugi had gone back to looking at Kaiba with his luminous eyes. "Kaiba-kun, what are you doing here? Not that I mind…but it's unusual. And you're injured. Shouldn't you be in bed?"

Kaiba glared at him. "I will decide for _myself _what I shall I shan't do, Mouto." His tone was cold…and then he frowned. "And what do you _mean, _I'm 'in-"

Yugi didn't let him finish, merely smiling wryly, and pointing vaguely in the direction of the CEO's face. "You have a wonderful bruise, Kaiba-kun, right down your left of your jaw. That, and I can see your arm is bruised too…"

Kaiba's glare turned into an outright scowl, but he raised a hand to his jaw, feeling the tender skin there. _Damn hospital gowns…_

Yugi flumped back into his pillow. "…Where's Yami?"

_Ah, the million dollar question…_

"Well-" Ryou hesitated. "Yugi, maybe you should-"

"_Where's Yami?" _The hesitation sent a panicked note into Yugi's voice, the boy sitting upwards with a bolt, completely ignorant of his aches and pains. "Ryou!"

"…In the name of _Ra _give it a _rest, _shrimp." Familiar whining tones spoke up from the bed everyone was currently ignoring at that moment in time. "_Some _of us are trying to rest."

"Bakura!" Ryou beamed, dashing over to his yami. "You're awake!"

"Yeah, well…" The former tomb-robber shadowed his eyes with a hand, blocking out the painful lights like Yugi had done before him. Hazily, his gaze slid from Ryou, to Kaiba to Yugi. "It's a bit hard to sleep with the racket you geese are making." A grumble, Bakura dragging thin blankets up over his head, slightly muffled when he spoke again. "If I could be bothered to clap my hands I would:- _congratulations _one and all. You have just officially woken the dead. And now, if you wouldn't mind, the dead would very _much_ like to go back to sleep again."

"Oh no you don't." Kaiba grabbed the sheet; yanking it down past Bakura's feet.

The yami let out a noise somewhere between a grumble and a whine. "What _now?"_

"Now you have a check-up, Bakura-san. You too, Mouto-san." The same woman who had treated Kaiba before came in, Mokuba at her heels. The boy cast a sympathetic look at his brother, but the doctor's expression was stern. "Kaiba-san, I strongly suggest you sit down."

The brunette glared. "I'm fine standing."

"I said sit _down, _Kaiba-san; you are physically exhausted. If you do not _wish _to be seated I will call in the orderlies, and they will escort you back to your private ward where you will be confined to forced bedrest."

"You can't do that."

A sweet smile. "Would you care to try me, Kaiba-san?"

Scowling, Kaiba took a seat on the edge of Yugi's bed.

* * *

_Now_

The pad was filled with beautiful drawings. Strange, mysterious creatures moved and lived and breathed between its pages, monsters sketched in pencil, pastel, pen. There was even a watercolour… This was an artist's pad, full of dreams. Full of pictures of _Duel Monsters_ drawn so well, so wonderfully, they would have put even Pegasus himself to shame.

Yami's fingertips traced the edge of a drawing of his favoured card, the Dark Magician, the sorcerer's gaze warm and kind and wise as it looked out from the pages at him. Tears pricked the back of his eyes and his vision blurred slightly, but he remained, curled up on his bed, quiet…quiet.

"Hey…Yami!"

The sketchpad fell with a quiet thump onto hospital sheets, Yami craning his head over his shoulder at once. "Ciara? I thought you had orchestra." His tone was questioning.

The girl sighed, slinging the red bookbag she had over her shoulder on the floor as she not-so-gracefully dumped herself in the chair by the other's bed. "It got cancelled." She pulled a face. "The teacher who takes orchestra was off ill; but did anyone think to tell us? _No…_ _We, _the poor students who have millions of other things we could be doing just _sit _there, until eventually some half-baked underling pops her head round the door and blithely announces the teacher's sick with flu, and has been off all day. _Seriously!_" The girl scowled, crossing her arms over her chest. "Does no-one in this society respect the fact teenagers do _not _appreciate having their time wasted by idiots other than themselves?!"

Yami chuckled. "My condolences on the loss of your so-precious time."

An amethyst glare was levelled at him. "As if _you _can speak! _You _don't have school right now. What do you even _do _in here all day?"

"Get visits from little cousins, apparently." Yami tossed his 'sister' the sketchpad. "A little girl by the name of Salena came and dropped this off for me, courtesy of one 'Seth'. Do you recognise it?"

Ciara glanced at the sketchpad, blinked, and then looked up at Yami. "It's your sketchpad. Your private one. You were forever carrying it everywhere and you _never _let anyone – but _Seth -" _a slightly jealous note crept into the girl's voice, "see it."

"Well…you can look at it now, if you like." Yami shrugged. "I don't care."

Ciara immediately flipped open the book. "Oh…wow…" She was quiet for about ten minutes, carefully going through all the pictures with a stunned look on her face. Yami, silent also, watched her. Eventually the girl looked up at him, handing the pad back. "Yami…I always knew you were a good artist, but…_wow. _I mean…hell; I don't _know _what I mean-"

"Don't compliment me," Yami sighed, drawing his knees up to his chin and wrapping his arms around them, "when those pictures aren't mine."

"But, you _drew _them-"

"I don't know that!" A snap from the boy. "I don't know _anything, _remember? _Regardless _of whether I actually drew those pictures or not; I don't _remember _drawing them, so it's all the same. _They're __**not **__mine."_

"I…" Ciara sighed. "Okay, then. Um…" She paused. "Since we're talking about pictures, I guess I should give you this." She bent down to retrieve a thick book from her bag, handing it to Yami. "Lots of people suggested giving this to you to er…'jump-start your memory'."

Yami frowned at her, but took the book.

It was bound in old, worn leather, rust-red after many years of love and looking over. Yami pulled it towards himself, idly tracing faded loops of gold that adorned the cover with his finger.

Ciara seemed nervous. "It's old, as you can see. We've been filling it since forever." Ruby eyes looked at her, and she fell silent.

Yami opened the book, and let out a soft gasp.

_It was him. _It was a photograph, obviously taken quite a few years ago because he only looked about eight, but it was most definitely _him. _No-one else had his hair, his eyes; it was physically impossible that the photograph was of anyone else but _him…_but he didn't recognise the house he was in front of. He didn't know why he was smiling; he didn't recognise the clothes he was wearing – _when had they taken that photograph? _Yami turned the page, and panic hit him. So he turned again, and again, and again and again and again and again and _again, _back and forwards, his heart beating faster and faster in his chest.

Every page.

Every _single _Ra-damned _page._

The pages were covered in photos. Yami in hospital, newborn; baby Yami; his first birthday; Yami and a swimming trophy, the two people who said they were his parents in the background, beaming proudly; Yami climbing a tree with the girl he now knew to be Ciara, both of them looking to be about twelve; more birthdays; Christmases; holidays; barbecues; award ceremonies; Yami with a slinky black cat perched on his shoulder; sports days; dances…photo after photo after _photo _looked up at the real Yami, his own face, smiling and laughing and joking with people who he didn't know and save three of them, had never met. His entire _life _was shown between the pages of a worn-out photograph album, from birth to where he was now – except it _wasn't. _He didn't recognise the people in the photos; they were strange, alien – _how could he have a life and not remember any of it?! _The Puzzle…but he didn't _have _the Puzzle! He didn't – he couldn't -

Yami cried out, picking up the photo album and flinging it across the room. Ciara yelped as the worn covers smacked into the hospital wall, a few stray pictures fluttering out to land, pathetically beside. "Yami-"

"Get out."The teen's words were cold.

"But, Yami-"

"_I said get out!" _

Flustered, Ciara scrambled up from her chair, grabbing her bag. "Yami, it's not my fault-"

Ruby eyes, narrowed and angry _glared _at her.

Ciara stumbled back a few steps. "…Okay…" Her voice was quiet. "Yami, I'll come back tomorrow if you want -"

"_Get. __**Out!"**_

Ciara fled the ward, the door slamming shut behind her.

The fury deflated out of Yami. Scared, tired, confused and miserable as hell he curled up on his bed, wishing the world would just go away and leave him alone. Lonely despair came over him then, and his tears wet his pillow when he wept.

* * *

_**Now**_

Much to Kaiba's relief, it didn't take long for Yugi and Bakura to be checked over and declared 'stable'. The irksome doctor then left, Mokuba shutting the door behind her with a soft _'phew'. _If the woman had stayed any longer he didn't really _know _what his brother would've done to her…

Actually, _Yugi _wasn't looking all too pleased either. But…he seemed more pissed at _Ryou…_

"Where's Yami?!"

"Midget, who _cares?" _Bakura was back to whining again. "_I, _for one, actually find it quite peaceful when the oh-so-mighty-one isn't around."

"He saved our _lives, _Bakura!" Ah, and Yugi's temper now fully encompassed _both _albinos. "You wouldn't _have _any peace were it not for him!"

"So _what?" _Bakura scowled. "You expect me to bow down on bended knee and pay him _homage?_ Did your size affect your brain or something?"

"Bakura!" Ryou looked outraged. "You owe him your _life!"_

"I owe him nothing!"

"Will you _all _in the name of sweet _God __**shut your mouths?!"**_

Stunned, three members of the room turned to stare at a fuming Kaiba. Mokuba, carefully, hid himself behind his brother's back…and then promptly _eeped _as the brunette moved, stalking (once more) to the cubicle at the end of the ward and flinging the curtains there back.

Bakura, ever determined not to fulfil a command any longer than necessary, spoke up. "…You know, if all else fails Kaiba, you should really try for the hospital drama team."

The rest of the room glowered at him, heading over to the CEO's side…or, more specifically, _Yami's. _Bakura huffed.

The former pharaoh was was…perfect, unblemished, unhurt. He had but a single wire attached to him to measure is heartbeat, a tube connecting him to a machine to feed him. But…that was all. There was nothing about him that seemed particularly wrong, or hurt at all. Yami could just have been sleeping, lying in a hospital bed.

_But there's this __**feeling…**_

"What…" Kaiba tried to speak, his voice cracking slightly for reasons he didn't quite know, blue gaze never leaving the slim form on the hospital bed in front of him, "what's wrong with him?"

"Well…at _first _they said it was just immense energy drain – exhaustion." Ryou's tone was soft. "Just like Yugi and Bakura." A glance at the hikari beside him, Yugi's face pained, and then over at Bakura, who scowled, before determinedly turning his back on them. "But then…they got over that, with all the rest they got. So the doctors did more tests on him."

"_And?"_

The albino looked seriously uncomfortable. "And they didn't find anything. At all. Kaiba-san, there's nothing _wrong _with Yami. Not _medically, _anyway." The Brit sounded almost bitter. "_Medically _he's just…_asleep." _A slight pause, Ryou glancing up at Kaiba from under half-lowered lashes. "I don't suppose you recognise the symptoms?"

"_Joy." _Sarcasm rang from the opposite end of the room. "So we have a soulless, comatose pharaoh. Zippadee-do-daa. Can I throw a party, or will I just get yelled at again?"

* * *

_Now_

It was all a lie

_All _of it. Was. A. _Lie._

There had never been a Puzzle to unlock – there had never been a Yugi to unlock it. There had never been a Ring, a Rod, a Necklace, a Key, the Scales, an Eye. There had been no Grandpa, to give him his Exodia pieces. There had been no Joey to save his Exodia cards before Duelist Kingdom. There had been no Pegasus to _organise _Duelist Kingdom. There was no Kaiba; the brunette had never forced his hand above the castle battlements, and later went on to arrange Battle City. There had _been _no Battle City. There hadn't been an Ishizu, to save the God cards, because there had never been a Marik. There had never been a Marik because there had never been a pharaoh. There had never been a pharaoh because-

_Because there was never an __**Atemu.**_

No Yugi, Grandpa, Joey, Tea, Tristan, Duke, Mai, serenity, Ryou, Bakura, Marik, Malik, Rebecca, Mokuba, Ishizu, Odion, Noah, professor Hawkins, Weevil, Rex, Mako, Pegasus, Shadi, Mahado, Karimu, Isis, Akunadin, Shimon, Akumunkano, Seth or _Atemu._

There had never been the Shadow Games, so there had never been the Millennium Items.

It was impossible to accept.

How could- how could he have a…a _life _– a whole, complete _life_, and-and ….and discover it was all…a lie? A fantasy? A _dream…? _He had lived and he had loved, he had led and he had followed, he had laughed and he had cried. How could all of that be _false? __**Untrue? **_No, _this _life, this…_place _had to be the lie. How could he have made up everything else? It was simply… _impossible…_

"Hey, Yami, I've -" Nurse Barnes entered the room, frowning when she saw her charge curled up in a ball on the bed. "Yami? Are you alright?"

"Fine." The answer was clipped.

"Oh…right…" A spot of red caught Teresa's eye and she turned, her frown deepening when she saw the splayed photo album on the floor. "What's this?" She bent down to pick it up, not even noticing as something glittering fell from her breast pocket as she did so-

"Leave that alone!"

Teresa jumped, startled to find Yami glaring at her. "Okay…but won't it get damaged just lying there?"

"I don't care whether it gets damaged or not." The teen was back to his curled up ball. "Just…please, leave it alone. Leave _me _alone. I…need some time to myself…"

"Alright then." The nurse was confused, but she turned to leave. What had come over Yami, to make him so withdrawn and unfriendly?

Behind her, Yami sighed. He sat up again to get a drink from the pitcher of water on his bedside cabinet –

And frowned, something gleaming at him under the overhead lights. Slipping out of bed he padded across the ward to it, scooping up cold metal in his hands whilst completely ignoring the photo album.

…It was a lighter…

* * *

_**Then**_

The moment ruby eyes cracked open Yugi was at his darker half's side.

"Yami, how do you feel?"

"Aibou…" The former pharaoh's gaze was sleepy, but a smile crept up onto his face. Gently he raised a hand, brushing stray bangs off his hikari's face. "I feel all the better for seeing you…but gods, am I tired…"

"Bakura said you'd be." Yugi said quietly. At the way his other perked up, eyes suddenly scanning the room he smiled. "He's not here anymore though…he and Ryou left about two hours ago."

"How long have I been out?"

"…About four since Bakura brought you out of the Shadow Realm. I've no idea how long since the actual…ceremony."

"And I'm still tired?" A faintly disbelieving note crept into Yami's voice. "Ah…I thought it would take a lot of energy to separate us, but not _this _much…"

"You'll be okay though, won't you?" Worry in Yugi's voice.

"I'll be _fine, _aibou." Yami smiled reassuringly, dropping his hand before carefully sitting up. "I…just need a bit of a rest. I don't suppose I could use your bed? I get the feeling I'm going to hurt a great deal tomorrow, and I'd like to save as much aches and pains as possible never mind backache from sleeping on a sofa too long."

Yugi grinned, helping his yami to his feet. The other stumbled slightly, but then regained his balance. "You're welcome to it."

* * *

_Now_

In the hospital where Yami was being kept, the fire alarm went off. A lightboard immediately informed staff on the set desk as to which room the alarm had been set off in, that end of the hospital going into immediate electrical shutdown save vital equipment, sprinklers set off in the room where the 'fire' had begun:– the slowly-becoming-infamous _Mouto _ward.

Of all the people who rushed to Yami's ward, not a single one of them would forget in the many years they had left of their lives the sight that met them there.

In the darkness of the ward caused by the automatic electrical shutdown in that end of the hospital a pale ghost stood, drizzle falling from the sprinkler overhead and slicking hair usually so many colours dark black and blood, wet strands clinging to a narrow, fine face while the emergency lights gave defiant, hard ruby eyes an eerie glitter. At the hostile youth's feet the last stubborn embers of a fire were being put out by the falling rain, paper burned and curved and ash littering the floor. Smoke, bitter and cloying, choked the tongue.

"Here." A gleaming object was thrown across the ward to the stunned crowd, one of the male interns raising a hand automatically to catch it. Opening curled fingers revealed a beautiful lighter coiled in the shape of a silver dragon, the metal of the case still wet and cold from Yami's touch.

"You-" The young man was at a loss.

Yami smiled – cold. "Give that to Nurse Barnes with my thanks, would you? She dropped it here this afternoon. It was most useful."

The gaping intern was shoved not-so-gently out of the way, doctors and nurses surging forwards as one mass to grab Yami's arms, hauling the soaked Yami from the ward.

Passive, Yami offered them no resistance.

When the crowds had left the room, only the intern with the lighter still clutched in his hand was left. He had only recently gained his position at the hospital, and had quite a way to go before he could even be _considered _for making doctor. Yami…he had never met someone like Yami before.

The pile of burned, twisted paper on the floor caught the young man's attention. Curious, he bent down to pick up a scrap, turning the charred piece over to reveal a ruined photograph, the picture's glossy surface melted and streaked with ash and soot.

It had obviously been a family photograph, once upon a time. Various figures of ranging sizes (and a cat) could just be made out, peoples' faces lost to hungry flames and a crimson-eyed youth's anger. Of the large group who had originally been in the photograph to start with only one remained untouched – Yami himself. The boy's hair was loose and wild, casually spiked up and raked back by tanned fingers, his smile in the picture charming and exasperated. But the feelings in his eyes…

Sighing, the young intern dropped the photograph on the floor. It fluttered downwards lazily, completely ignoring the haste the sprinkler overhead and emergency lighting seemed to create in the rest of the atmosphere. Sliding the lighter in his pocket the intern left the ward, unsettled, trying to put as much distance between himself and that strange, strange picture as possible.

For…even when Yami was smiling, seemingly happy, in the dim light of his ward it was impossible to tell whether it was the poor illumination that gave the boy's eyes such a haunted, shadowed look, or whether Yami's eyes had always been that way.

* * *

**Notes on Yami: **Uh…he's a little emotional this chapter. (Understatement of the year, much?) We now have him tired, upset and confused, as well as annoyed. _Never _a good mix in anyone, least of all a volatile ex-pharaoh. Not at all… Actually, I'm surprised that he only set fire to the photo album. When Yami-kun's pissed, he can do strange, strange things…

Concerning Yami's ability to draw…I don't really know where that came from. Yami must've been able to write when he was Pharaoh, in all three versions of ancient Egyptian script (hieroglyphics, hieratic and demotic). Since the former two are always pictures, I'm guessing that, by extension, Yami must be able to draw pretty well too. …Just a side note, but hieroglyphics are a _pain _to draw…

**Notes on Salena: **Congrats to those of you who figured out last chapter that yes, Salena has Mokuba's birthday. Salena herself…? Ah, she's based partly on Mokuba and partly on what I remember _my _little cousins to be like at that age (yes, they were actually _sweet _once).

**Notes on Seth: **Seth is personally beginning to remind me way too much of what my big brother used to be like when we were kids, getting his little sister to trot round and do stuff for him. (pouts) As to why Yami had left his sketchpad with Seth…(grins) You'll find out.

**Shadow: **…I should really go do my art coursework. It's all due up on the walls for display this week to be moderated (ulp), and there's a lot I should really go get done on it. (sighs) Wish me luck for my exams?


	5. Of holes in things

**Shadow: **Urgh…I've been on this PC _way _too long, from _way _too early. (Shadow-chan's parents need to learn to be _quiet _when leaving to go on trips at half past _friggin' _six in the morning. And that _dratted _buzzing fly. 'All things bright and beautiful' my ass. If I see that fly again it _dies._) My brain's turned a pile of mushy fuzz-fuzz. Yes, _fuzz-fuzz. _It's in that much of a state of incomprehnsibleness. (grumbles, and pulls pillow over her head)

**Important notes: **The following chapters take place in three different areas of time/space: _**Then, **__Now, _and _**Now. **_They're all marked below, so pay attention to what happens in each. They all tie together as to what happened, and what's happening now because of it.

**Translations:**

_Otou-san: _Father

_Moshi moshi: _standard Japanese greeting over the phone

_Wakarimashita: _I understand

_Gomen: _Sorry

_Arigatou: _Thankyou

_Ja ne: _See you

_Jii-chan: _Grandpa

_Aibou: _Partner

**Discalimer: **I don't happen to own anything in this chapter that I reference – well, except myself.

**By the way: **A very happy birthday to _Isis the Sphinx - _much love for all your deductions all the time, and I'm sorry this isn't TTR, this just came out instead. And do you know...it's my third anniversary of starting writing on this site on the eighth? I'm still in shock. (grins)

**Meltdown**

**Chapter 5: Of holes in things**

_Now_

Seclusion.

Even the very _word _reeked of solitude and exclusion (being made up of a jumble of the two already), of confinement, of days spent endlessly staring at the wall and obstinately turning your head away from visiting physicians and psychiatrists alike.

Yami was perfectly healthy – he _knew _he was - both physically _and _mentally. Which is why he got so _frustrated _with all the people who constantly peered in on him, who gawked outside his cell, who came in to sit with him and show him pretty diagrams explaining just what he had 'wrong' with him, and how they were going to help him 'make it all better'. He was beginning to hate everyone outside his cell.

That's what it was, really – a _cell. _A room barely three metres by six, with four grey walls and a thick metal door in one of them. No window to see out of, and a thin metal bed and a light bulb to keep him company.

_Seclusion._

He was to be secluded for a week for burning the photograph album, locked in this tiny cell so he could neither harm himself or anyone else. His 'mood swings' – as the twits this place called doctor had dubbed them – were merely pointed out to all and sundry as proof of his mental instability – apparently now he was exhibiting traces of bipolarity, of which he was in the 'depressive stage'.

Yami snorted, stretching out on his bed – it was more of a cot, really – and dangling one arm over the furniture's edge to brush the floor. He wasn't mentally unstable – at least, not in the way the pompous blowhards of this hospital had decided him to be -, and he _certainly _wasn't bipolar. So it worried him, vaguely, when the people outside his cell discussed putting him onto new drugs.

He'd overheard them talking once or twice, holding a conversation about him when they thought he'd been asleep. They were disheartened by his 'lack of progress' and 'hostility towards others', and so were debating whether to put him on…carbamazepine? Yami had never heard of the drug before, but apparently his 'personal doctor' believed it would lower his bipolar symptoms (– of which they were none in the friggin' first place -), and make him more sociable towards others. (Yami was _perfectly _sociable. He talked frequently with the people who wandered into his cell to visit him…just no-one had specified he had to be _polite _to the bumbling idiots, had they?)

Yami wanted out. He'd been in his cell for two days already and it was literally driving him _mad. _He had no 'personal' guests to see him anymore – Ciara wasn't allowed anywhere _near _him during seclusion – and the only friendly faces he could see were the fake ones that waltzed through the door, patronisingly sweet tone in every voice and clipboard in hand. And – and –

_**Let us be friends, and whisper secrets in one another's ears**_

Yami gagged, his stomach suddenly twisting uncomfortably. Nausea was a bitch at the best of times, and with no reason he could think of for its cause Yami curled up on the bed, only remembering to lean over in time to retch and not drown himself in his own vomit.

His body shuddering and the horrid taste of acid still lingering in his mouth Yami collapsed back on his cot again, exhausted. He knew…there was a camera fixed into the corner where two walls met. There was always a guard watching the feed at a desk, so _someone_ would have seen him being sick and –

_**And we promise to play nicely, even though you were mean**_

Right on cue, there was the sound of footsteps running down the corridor outside.

* * *

_**Then**_

Yugi smiled when he opened his eyes first thing that morning, and saw his yami fast asleep in the bed beside him. Not that he himself was in the bed… No, Yugi lay on a futon on the floor, a spare duvet pulled up over him to keep him warm. It was perfectly comfortable, and it afforded him a heart-warming view of his darker half first thing, burrowed under blankets with his hair delightfully mussed. Yami looked all the better for his sleep – a little more colour had returned to his cheeks, and he just generally looked more relaxed.

Introducing Yami to his grandpa the night before had been an…_interesting _experience. Solomon Mouto had been a little startled, to say the least, to see a young man practically identical to his grandson fast asleep in said grandson's bed. A long explanation had then taken place, of which a sleepy Yami had had to be awoken to participate in. Eventually, Solomon had accepted what Yugi and Yami were telling him – Solomon had lost his own soul to the powers of a Millennium Item before, and he'd witnessed such things in the tomb of the nameless Pharaoh… Still, it was an exhausting process recounting all the details, and it wasn't only Yami who willingly collapsed back into sleep again after the whole process was finished with. Leaving his _two _grandsons to sleep, Solomon had returned to tending his store.

Quietly, Yugi got up, folding his duvet up and rolling up his futon so Yami wouldn't trip over it should he try to get out of bed. It was a testament to the love he felt towards his darker half as – like most typical teenage boys – he didn't usually keep his room all that tidy. Still, he cleared up after himself that morning and – mindful of the events of the _previous _morning – decided to get dressed before going downstairs for breakfast. Or brunch, really, as it was pushing half eleven already. He must've been more tired out by his talk with his grandfather the night before than he'd originally thought…

The kitchen was quiet when he got downstairs, save for the faint sound of the breeze through the open window, and the far-off sound of someone sweeping – that would be jii-chan in the front yard again. Smiling he set some rice to boil, humming off-key as he swept across the linoleum floor on a voyage to the instant coffee.

The phone rang.

"Moshi, moshi. Yugi Mouto sp-"

"Yugi-san!"

Yugi smiled, recognising the caller and positioning the – cordless – handset between cheek and shoulder as he set about filling his coffee cup. "Ryou-kun, good morning. What's up?"

"'Good morning'?" There was a brief pause, and Yugi had the distinct mental image of Ryou glancing at the clock he kept hanging just above the phone in his living room. "Yugi, it's just past noon."

"It's practically the same thing, considering I just got up."

"…Oh? That's late even for you."

"'Even' for me? I feel insulted." Yugi laughed. "We can't all be as punctual as _some _people before ten in the day, you know. And besides – I had a late night last night."

Ryou sounded concerned. "Was it Yami who kept you up? Only – you're _usually _fine and-"

"I introduced Yami to jii-chan." Yugi shifted the phone under his other ear as the first one was getting a little sore, finishing making his coffee and carrying it over to the kitchen table.

"_Ohh…" _Comprehension. "I forgot you'd have that extra problem. It's…different for me, as 'tou-san is hardly ever home. Um…how did Mouto-jii-chan take it? I mean, it's got to be a bit of surprise, coming home to find your grandson's 'twin' suddenly living in your house."

"I think…" Yugi hesitated; remembering the way his grandfather had studied the sleepy Yami sharply after their explanation, and then…how his eyes had softened in thought, and how the old man had gently shooed both of them upstairs to bed; "I think he took it quite well, all things considering. I mean, he _believed _us, with was a brilliant start, and… he's fond of Yami already? Sort of? I don't really know but -"

"Wakarimashita, Yugi – I understand." The young duelist could practically _hear _his friend smiling softly. "Yami-san looks so very much like you, and even half-asleep it is obvious how much he cares for you… Mouto-jii-chan has a big heart, and he is a very kind man. I think he would take in Yami simply for the fact you love him so – but…he likes him too, anyway? Gomen, I might be speaking nonsense too myself, but maybe Yami to him will be his second grandson. Anyway…I just called really to see how you and Yami-san were doing. Yami-san was so awfully tired, and you were in pain too before you…_reconnected_ – is that the word, do you think? – with the Puzzle."

"Arigatou Ryou-kun, but Yami and I are fine. Yami's still a bit tired of course, so I left him sleeping, but otherwise we're both doing brilliantly."

"I'm glad to hear that…" Ryou paused. "I suppose I'd best see how my own yami is doing, ne Yugi-kun? Bakura has yet to be able to conquer the complexities of the kitchen appliances – I don't think he really cares all that much about them, to be honest -, and I'd really rather he both didn't destroy my kitchen and steal food from next door. He blamed my neighbour's loss of a whole apple pie on the neighbourhood cat, you know…"

Yugi laughed. "That sounds like him."

"He _really_ doesn't like that cat. It was hate on first sight – Jangles – that's the cat's name by the way - took a swipe at Bakura's hair, and the rivalry was off." Ryou sighed. "Bakura insists on pointedly sharpening one of his knives in the window where Jangles can see it, and Jangles has already tried to take a chunk out of my yami's hair when he 'went for a walk' last night."

Yugi let out a soft snort of amusement, rising from his seat to check on his breakfast. "It sounds like a cartoon."

"It's too insane for that – I mean, _seriously _Yugi-kun, it's just a cat! It doesn't have superpowers or evil plots going through its head – it's just a dumb animal that -"

"-That Bakura's taking a sudden dislike to." The rice was fine. "Ryou, maybe you should consider warning your neighbour to keep Jangles indoors for a little while? Say there's a rare strain of cat flu going around or something, and you're worried Jangles could get ill."

Ryou mused on the suggestion. "…I…think I'll do that. Arigatou, Yugi-kun; you may have just saved a cat's life. Ja ne?"

"Ja ne, Ryou-kun." Yugi's voice was full of warmth. "Good luck with Bakura-san."

* * *

_Now_

Yami wished the voices in his head would go away and leave him alone.

They were beginning to worry him – the voices – as they'd first appeared just before he'd first been sick and, as they grew louder, he threw up more often. As the day had gone by he'd found himself getting weaker and weaker, and now lay, completely listless, on his cot, unable to spare the energy to move even if he wanted to.

…Hearing voices in your head was a sure sign you were going crazy…

"Heh." Yami spoke aloud, almost in an attempt to drown out the noise in his skull. "I guess if someone treats you like you're mad long enough you eventually _do _go insane."

"That's not true, Yami."

The ex-pharaoh jumped – or jumped as much as one could lying down -, twisting his head to see his personal psychiatrist sitting on a small stool in the corner of his cell. When had _he _gotten there? Crimsons eyes narrowed. "How long have you been there?!" _Bastard,_ his mind added internally

_**Quite. Our darling shouldn't be disturbed while he's taking his afternoon nap.**_

"Barely two minutes." The doctor smiled benignly. "Now, are you open for discussion today, Yami? I know you're not feeling so well today and I thought-"

"No." Yami's reply was short. The man had probably only dared to enter his cell because of his…illness.

"Oh – _come _Yami, don't be petty. We seriously need to talk -"

_**Let us sit down together and talk of the death of Kings…**_

_That's a mis-quote._

_**Who but a madman talks to nonsense? Oh, destroy the world and **_**tear **_**it into little pieces that I will throw to the stars - I'll rip them from the sky and hold the pieces in my hands -**_

_You said 'we' before_

_**Shh, shh…that's a secret, sweetie. Don't touch the cookie jar til' after tea.**_

"I don't want-"

"Yes Yami? _What _don't you want?" The psychiatrist looked eager, and Yami realised he must've spoken aloud.

"None of your business."

_**Smack the little liar for stealing snacks and put him away forever and ever – go to jail, don't pass go, don't collect two hundred pounds – they're **_**ours!!**

_Wha-?_

_**Put him where it's **_**dark **_**and we'll drop him on the floor and sweep up all the broken pieces. Sparkle, sparkle in the gloom and I've a good mind to tell you off for being awake now – naughty boy! I'll set the ghosties on you and **_**then **_**you'll be sorry.**_

_I wish you'd go away and let me be…_

_**Shh, shh – don't cry. Heaven's tears are raindrops on the ground**_

Yami wanted Yugi then, so badly it _hurt. _He was tired of all this – of all the strangeness, loneliness and pain -, and simply longed for his hikari's smile, the reassuring warmth on the other end of the bond they shared between them. He could almost hear Yugi's laugh, and clear as day he could see his little other in his mind, lying flat on his back on green, green grass, the sun hot in the clear blue sky over their head. That had been…last summer, just after school had broken up. They had all gone to the park for the day; Yugi, Joey, Tea, Tristan, Ryou, Duke and Serenity (Yami and Bakura tagging along in their respective Items – the latter spirit against his will-, and Serenity had been in town that week to visit her brother). Joey had been complaining he was too hot, so Duke had pushed him into the fountain. What had followed had perhaps been Domino's biggest water fight for quite a few years, the whole group racing around the park like madmen, shrieking and laughing at the top of their lungs. They'd all gotten drenched, and collapsed on the grass afterwards to dry off before starting on the picnic lunch they'd brought with them. Joey, Duke and Tristan had taken the time to start their usual fight over Serenity, and Yugi had been laughing…

Memories were such precious things. Surely…it was inconceivable such things he could recall were lies. Yet…even as his mind brushed over past events, Yami began to frown. Yugi…his light's face, and the sound of his voice, was clear and vivid in his memory, but the others – the edges of their faces were beginning to blur. Tea had brown hair and blue, blue eyes, and Serenity had red hair and… Yami's frown grew. What colour were Serenity's eyes? He knew Duke's eyes were green and Ryou's hair was white – or was it… No. This was just –

Yami was aware of the soft sound of pencil being scribbled across a page. Lolling his head to one side once more, he looked balefully at the psychiatrist still camped in the corner of his cell. "Are you still here?"

_**I caught a butterfly and burned it once, and it fell from the sky aflame**_

The doctor looked at him. "Yami, why do you keep refusing to talk to me?"

"I don't like you." Yami was too weary to mince words. "I thought even _you _would have figured that out by now, doctor."

"Why don't you like me?"

"It's a long list, doctor, and I really don't have the patience to rattle it all off at you right now. Just be safe in the knowledge you're an annoying, patronising man with no respect for personal privacy." Yami tilted his head away again, closing his eyes. "Now I'd appreciate it if you'd go away. I'm tired from being sick all day, and it's rather hard to sleep while you're sitting scribbling away in the corner there."

"…Very well." The man got to his feet, clearly reluctantly, picking up his stool and marching over to the door out of the room and rapping on it sharply. "Get plenty of rest, Yami." The door opened for him to leave, shutting immediately after he had done so.

_**How far this little candle throw's it beams…**_

Yami sighed, letting out a low grumble. "It's not as if I've got anything _better _to do right now…"

* * *

_**Now**_

"So we have a soulless, comatose pharaoh. Zippadee-do-daa. Can I throw a party, or will I just get yelled at again?"

Yugi glared at Bakura, but the former tomb-robber only scoffed at him, unimpressed, before rolling back over so his back faced the trio clustered around Yami's bed. "Wait a few years before trying to look down your nose at _me, _shrimplet." Bakura burrowed into his hospital pillow, sounding bored out of his skull. "You need the time to grow into that expression."

"Bakura!" Ryou scolded his other half, faint traces of true anger leaking into his tone. "Do you have _no _conscience?"

One, lazy amber eye peered back over a stubborn shoulder at the hikari. "…Do I really need to answer that?"

Ryou let out what almost sounded like a growl, storming over to his darker half's bed and grabbing Bakura's hair, yanking it sharply near the roots. Bakura yelped, dragged out of his bed rather ungracefully and pulled across the ward, eyes watering from pain. Dammit, that _hurt! _

Kaiba smirked as the tomb-robber stumbled his way over to them, bent nearly double from the way Ryou was yanking at his hair. With a relish he didn't often feel he watched as Ryou effectively controlled his unruly other half, his smirk only growing when Ryou finally released Bakura's head and the thief straightened, rubbing his scalp and glowering at his younger twin.

"_Hair-pulling, _hikari? I thought that was reserved for little girls."

"I thought it only _worked_ on little girls too." Kaiba didn't even so much as bat an eye when Bakura turned a murderous stare on him for his remark.

"_Watch _it Priest, unless you want to end up like His Most Royal Pain-in-the-ass over there."

"Don't you _dare, _Bakura." Ryou was still thoroughly annoyed with his darker half. "Things are bad enough as they are without another soul being lost!"

"…'Lost'…?" Yugi seemed to shrink in upon himself at the word, huddling closer to Yami's body on the bed. "What do you mean – 'lost'? He can't be 'lost'! We know where his soul is – right?" Imploring purple eyes fixed on Ryou, pleading.

"Oh, _don't_ start up with the whole 'soul' crap again." Kaiba looked irritable. "Do you people never grow sick of that same old tune? It grows wearying for those with a shred of sanity left in their skulls."

"That wouldn't be _you _then, _would _it High Priest?" Bakura smirked, glad to have got a jab in when Kaiba growled.

"Don't _call _me that!"

"Why not, _High Priest?_" The albino's tone was taunting. "Afraid of the truth, are we? Afraid of _yourself?_ Scared to close your eyes at night for fears of the monsters that'll sneak up on you in your _dr-eaams? _Poor widdle High Priest, all afraid of his-_" _Bakura ducked suddenly, as Kaiba swung for his head (no-one really seemed to be liking his skull all that much that day). The action had him gasping and clutching at his side, wobbling in his duck and falling on his ass on the floor. Kaiba, too, overbalanced, drawing back too quickly after his punch when his arm and side pained him, nearly tripping over the sprawled-out Bakura. Mokuba lunged to grab the back of his brother's hospital gown and arm to steady the brunette, but Kaiba only winced as Mokuba's fingers dug into a particularly painful bruise just above his elbow. Noticing this and apologising profusely, Mokuba helped Seto to sit down on the nearest empty bed – Yugi's.

"_Idiot." _Bakura let out a few curses from the floor, wobbling as he slowly clambered back up onto his feet, his side still throbbing from his earlier movements. "Do the words 'rest' and 'recuperation' mean _nothing_ to you, you overblown _fool?" _His glare was fixed firmly on Kaiba. "We're in friggin' hospital for a _reason! _Don't go swinging your fists about and injuring all of us some more!!_"_

"You shouldn't have provoked him, Bakura." Yugi's voice was quiet as he sat on Yami's bed, threading his fingers through the pharaoh's hair. "If Kaiba-kun does not believe in Shadow magic, if he doesn't believe Yami is my yami as you are Ryou's, if Kaiba-kun doesn't believe Yami now doesn't have a soul within him -" Yugi choked slightly, but composed himself, "Bakura, if Kaiba-kun doesn't believe any of that _now, _after so long, when you stand before him ("In all your annoying glory." Mokuba muttered under his breath.) as living proof, do you honestly think a few of your cheap barbs are going to do anything?"

Bakura scowled, his lips a thin, disapproving line, but remained silent for a short while as he turned to regard Kaiba who still sat on the other bed, Mokuba fussing over him. Slowly, he moved over to where the brunette sat, standing directly in the CEO's line of sight so – eventually – Kaiba had to look at him.

"_What?" _The young man's question was little more than an ill-concealed snarl.

Amber eyes were unreadable, Bakura's voice unusually soft. "…You cannot live forever in denial, Kaiba Seto. One day you're going to have to wake up and realise the truth."

Kaiba met the other's gaze solidly. "And if I choose not to accept your 'truth'?"

"Then by your own foolishness you will have passed over a hundred thousand opportunities, and lost yourself everything you hold dear."

Instinctively, Kaiba's arm tightened around Mokuba, the muscles in the young businessman's face tautening. A heartbeat passed, where all the ward's occupants were silent and then:

"Get out of my way." Kaiba rose to his feet, imposing even dressed in a hospital gown. He towered over everyone else there present, Mokuba a sombre figure against the CEO's side.

Bakura stepped out of the way to let the brothers past, silent until the elder of the two laid his hand on the ward door.

"_Kaiba."_

The brunette paused, eerily still. He didn't turn around but waited, poised, one hand still touching the door handle.

Bakura had his back to the reincarnated priest, but still he raised his chin, looking almost defiantly at the still form of Yami ahead of him. "Get over yourself. It wasn't your fault, so it's pointless regretting past mistakes."

Kaiba bowed his head, voice and tone low. "…What I may or may not regret is none of your concern, Bakura." He straightened, pushing open the door and stalking back out into the outside corridor. "I'll be in my room."

Mokuba bit his lip, looking back at his friends. "I'll come back to see you later, okay?"

"That would be great, Mokuba." Yugi managed a warm smile at the boy and, reassured, Mokuba quickly left the ward to hurry after the receding form of his elder brother.

Bakura immediately stomped back over to his bed, dragging the privacy curtains around it. Ryou sank into a nearby chair once more, glancing up at Yugi hesitantly. Yugi merely looked at him, and then resumed threading his fingers through his soulless yami's hair.

* * *

_Now_

_**Frére Jacques, Frére Jacques, Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous? **_

Yami stirred sometime…he didn't know exactly when. His sleep had been thankfully dreamless, and if the voices had spoken to him, he could not remember what they had said. In retaliation, they had started almost immediately upon his awakeningand now they would reverberate off the inside of his skull and his cell –

_**Sonnez les matines! Sonnez les matines! Din dan don. Din dan don.**_

…Only…he wasn't in his cell anymore. Blinking, Yami – slowly – sat up on his bed, surprised to find himself once more back in his – original – private ward. The air stank of air fresheners and cleaners, used to try and rid the room of smoke. The floor gleamed…except for that one, small darkened patch, where he'd burned the photo album. That remained dim, a dull splodge on a shiny sea. It…it pained him in a way, to destroy so many memories for someone else in one go. But…they hadn't been _his _memories. They'd been fake- that had to be – and he wouldn't let someone try to replace his Yugi with lies. Yugi's heart was dear to him, as well as all his other friends, Joey and Tea and –

Something faltered inside.

_Joey and Tea and –_

Joey and Tea and – _oh no. _This couldn't –_couldn't – _be happening! Something cold slithered into Yami's heart, and he tried suddenly, desperately to remember the names of his friends. He could see all their faces, a ring of them, smiling and laughing and joking about him, but aside from Yugi, Joey and Tea –

He could remember Kaiba, and there had been Kaiba's brother. That younger boy with dark hair, and light eyes, who reminded him of Salena. And…Joey's sister, the red-head with… those other two boys fighting over her – both of them had dark hair, but even their faces were…

_**On and on, and time whirls in such dizzying circles, red and blue and gold all fade to black**_

But he could still remember their voices.

"_Get away from her!" The two were fighting over the red-head yet again. "She doesn't want to talk to _you."

"_And what makes you think she wants to talk to _you, _you bozo?!"_

"_Hey!" Joey sounded indignant. "Who says she wants to talk to _either _of you?!"_

Yami cracked a thin smile which never quite reached his eyes. The two boys had always been fighting over Joey's sister, and Tea had remarked on it to Yugi.

"_Boys." The brunette rolled her eyes. "They never grow up, do they?"_

"_Hey!" Yugi prodded the girl in the arm. "I'll have you remember I'm male too!"_

"_Exactly." Tea eyed her friend with a smile. "You're all a doomed species."_

But…even Tea was beginning to fade away in his memory. He could still see the girl's short hair framing her face, but her eyes were blurry, her smile dissolving even as he tried to dredge it up. Joey's blonde hair had gleamed in the sunlight, but his face was a complete mystery. And Yugi, his precious, sweet, _dear _hikari was…

Yami's heart wrenched.

_YUGI!!_

* * *

_**Then**_

"Bakura, no! That's not how you -" Ryou's words ended in a groan, as Bakura finally succeeded in pulling the dial off of his electric oven. After going to see his neighbour about Jangles the cat earlier that day like Yugi had suggested, Ryou had come home and dragged his yami into the kitchen. He was determined Bakura should know at least how to cook basic food for himself (and thus not be tempted to kill and eat a certain fluffy ginger moggy raw). Insofar, things had actually been going quite well. Bakura wasn't an idiot – though plenty of others would care to disagree – and was perfectly capable of utilising both technology and utensils once he'd been shown how to first. Only…it was the whole 'getting there first' thing that was bothering Ryou, as a curious three-thousand year old tomb-robber had been released on his poor, unsuspecting kitchen. Still, breakages (much to Ryou's great relief) were actually pretty low. They were trying to make chicken and pasta.

Bakura dropped the – now broken – dial, shifting out of the way when Ryou breezed across the room to inspect the damage. The hikari bit his lip. "Hm…I think we can still use the cooker. Shift the pan with the pasta in it to the back burner on the left, and turn – yes, _turn – _the dial to about half-way. No, don't pull it! Just…twist." Ryou quickly twisted the dial, to get his point across. "You see?"

Bakura nodded. He'd been quite reluctant when Ryou had first pulled him into the kitchen, but had seen his hikari's point. There was use in him learning how to use the kitchen appliances, and it meant he didn't have to rely on Ryou so much. Bakura was individual now once more, and was used to being self-sufficient. It would a blow to his pride to constantly depend upon someone else to feed him. Plus…learning to cook meant he was less likely to give himself food poisoning if he decided to grab a snack.

Ryou looked up from the oven, and smiled at him. Bakura snorted, crossing his arms and leaning back against a nearby bench. Sure, the little brat had taught him how to use the microwave, the toaster, the can-opener and the oven, but no way in _hell _did that suddenly just make them 'best friends'. Ryou was his hikari, yes, and that gave him _some _privileges, but Bakura was _not _turning into a sap, he _refused _to do something so ungodly cutesy as actually _smile back, _and the gods would strike him down before he'd ever go around with the pharaoh's cheerleaders singing the man's praises.

Ryou, almost as if reading his yami's thoughts, rolled his eyes. Standing up he headed over to the fridge to pull out a bottle of cola – he was thirsty. He waved said bottle at his darker half. "Would you like some?" Bakura shook his head no, so Ryou poured his own drink out, replacing the bottle in the fridge before raising the cola to his lips to take a drink –

The phone rang.

With a sigh, Ryou put the cola down once more, picking up the receiver. "Moshi, moshi."

"Ryou Bakura?"

The voice on the other end of the phone line caused Ryou's brow to wrinkle. That voice – it was familiar, and –

"It's me, Marik Ishtar."

"Marik?" The question in Ryou's voice was obvious. "Is something wrong?"

"I don't rightly know…" There was a pause. "Ryou, may I speak to Bakura please?"

"Um…yeah, sure." Ryou motioned Bakura over to take the receiver from him. At his other's quizzical look he only shrugged. "Don't ask me. Marik only asked to speak to you."

Bakura took the phone, raising it to his ear like he'd seen Ryou do only minutes before. His manner though, was much less polite than his hikari's. "What do you want, Ishtar?"

"You know…after Battle City I gave away my Millennium Rod, right? And Ishizu her Necklace."

"_I know." That _was still a sore subject with Bakura – both Items had gone to the pharaoh and his light.

"But…Ishizu and I already have a high enough magical ability to summon Shadows without the Items."

Bakura sighed – loudly. "Ishtar, if this little ramble of yours has any point to it, get to it soon otherwise I'm giving the phone back to Ryou."

Marik hurried on, knowing the other would do as he said he would. "Fine, fine! Just…a few days ago, Ishizu had a weird dream, which left her with an even odder feeling."

"You're calling me about your sister's _feelings?!"_

"Bakura, just hear me out, alright?" Marik ignored the snort the albino let out. "_Yes, _Ishizu had an odd feeling. But then…so did I, and anyone _else _with at least medium-level magical ability in our clan. As if…Ishizu said the best way to describe it was as if everyone was suddenly just a little bit more…'empty'."

Bakura clicked his tongue impatiently, but waited for the rest of the story.

The blonde Egyptian on the other end of the line quickly obliged. "I went into the Shadow Realm and -" Marik paused again. "Bakura, either the pharaoh or you have been performing powerful magic recently, haven't you? Really, _really _high-power stuff."

"…Yes…"

"Just what did you do?"

"…The pharaoh and I both split from our hosts."

"You have separate bodies from Ryou and Yugi now?"

"Yes."

Marik groaned. "Bakura, you – do you even realise what you've _done?"_

Bakura sighed. "I have no doubt you're going to enlighten me anyway."

* * *

_Now_

Yami felt quite, quite ill. His earlier sickness seemed to be rearing its ugly head once more, but the thought of his friends, slowly wasting away in his memory, and _Yugi –_

He could only remember his hikari's name now. Things…were moving faster and faster to catch up with him, and his head was spinning and his stomach was churning and Yami –

Yami was running for the tiny bathroom that bordered his ward, lurching slightly as he ran. The door had barely slammed shut behind him before he was vomiting into the sink, gripping either side of the white basin in a death-grip.

_Yugi… _Even the boy's name sounded like a eulogy in his mind, a requiem for a lost soul. _YUGI. _He had to keep this scrap of his hikari in his mind – he _had _to -, he couldn't just _forget…_

_**It takes all the running one can do just to stay in the same place. If you want to get anywhere soon, you'll have to run twice as fast…**_

_Yugi, Yugi, _YUGI. His hikari, his light, the other half of his soul. So…why did Ciara keep slipping into his mind?

Doing the seemingly impossible, Yami's fingers tightened further on the edges of the sink.

* * *

_**Now**_

Bakura was bored. There was only so much one could do in a curtained cubicle in an open ward, and he'd got sick of sleeping and counting ceiling tiles. So, that left communicating with the humans currently inhabiting the ward...

The albino poked his head out of the curtain, a slight frown crossing his face as he realised the ones he'd planned on taunting/tormenting to amuse himself were both asleep. Ryou was completely out of it in his chair, face buried in the crook of his arm which leant on the chair back. Yugi had leant back against the headboard of Yami's bed, dropping off curled around his darker half. And Yami was…well, he was still soulless.

Moving as stealthily across the ward as his bruises would allow, Bakura crossed to stand at the base of Yami's bed, staring at his empty rival. It was…_odd _to see the vibrant pharaoh so quiet, so lifeless and lax. The young man had been the constant bane of his life for so many years it was just plain _weird _to see him being peaceable for a change, and it just…

Y'know, now Bakura thought about it, Bakura hadn't actually examined a soulless body in all that much detail before. Sure, he'd _created _his own fair share of soulless, but he'd never really…noticed, until now, what a drastic change it made to the people. The shadows on the pharaoh's face were long, and easily seen, and the youth for once looked the age he'd be if he'd never been locked away in a Puzzle for a few millennia. Yami looked…_young._

Noticing the light in the ward was gradually fading as evening set in – Bakura could see the time of day by glancing out of the ward's window -, the once tomb-robber flicked on the light beside Yami's bed. It was a bright, horrid thing, and Bakura turned away from it almost at once, his gaze falling on the dark shadows that were immediately cast upon the floor. He could see his own topped with slightly lighter spikes where light filtered through the strands, as well as the shadow of Yugi sitting on the bed, the bed itself and –

Bakura frowned.

_That can't be right…_

Turning the light slightly, Bakura once again studied the shadows crated by the people and objects in the room. His shadow? _Check. _The bed? _Check. _Yugi? _Check. _Yami?

Yami didn't appear to have a shadow.

His stomach sinking, Bakura reached out to lift Yami's hand with his own, placing both directly in the path of the light being emitted from the lamp. Turning to the wall, he could see the shadow of his own hand clearly, but where Yami's hand and arm should have been…

There was nothing. Yami had no shadow.

Bakura's stomach hit rock bottom.

* * *

_Now_

_Aibou. _Tears ran down Yami's face as he stumbled back to his bed, clambering up and wrapping his arms about himself as he lost himself in a lament inside his head. _AIBOU._

He'd lost his aibou's smile…even…even the sound of the boy's voice…

It shouldn't –

_**Is my darling lonely…?**_

_GO AWAY!!!_

_**Our poor, pretty darkness, shh…don't cry.**_

_Aibou… _He couldn't have lost his aibou, his hikari, the boy who had freed him from the Puzzle and –

_**It'll be over soon, we promise.**_

"Yami?" His psychiatrist came in. Yami turned a hateful glare on the man, but the doctor refused to be dissuaded. "Yami, we moved you back here due to your illness. If you show signs of-"

"I'm not an idiot, doctor, and nor am I suicidal." Yami's tone was cold.

The man coughed, a little awkward. "That's good. Now…Yami. I really do want to have a discussion with you about -"

"I said I don't want to talk to you!!"

"_Yami. _Do you really want to be put back on sedation again? Or back in seclusion? Those places are dull, I know -"

"Stop rambling." Yami's voice was blunt. He…didn't want to be put back in seclusion again. He was sick of that room, that cell – at least here he had a drawing pad, cards, books, something to actually _look _at. "I…I'm not going to talk to you often."

"Of course not, just a little would be enough." The psychiatrist sensed he was finally getting somewhere.

"Or long."

"As I said, just a little…"

"If…that's alright then…" Yami bit his lip, "Then I'll talk."

"That's wonderful, Yami!" The doctor smiled brightly, his expression so plastic it hurt just to _look _at.

"Just stop smiling like that." Yami was more than a little freaked out.

The smile was hastily dropped, and the psychiatrist coughed once more. "_Right then…" _The man carefully manoeuvred himself into the seat beside his patient's bed. "Let's start with the dream you had while you were in the coma."

"Alright…"

"Yami, if you'd be so kind, could you please tell me about Yugi again?"

"Yugi?" Yami frowned, staring at the man now seated beside him.

"That's right." The doctor clicked his pen, positioning it so he could begin to write easily.

"…'Yugi'?" Yami repeated.

"Yes, Yami – 'Yugi'."

There was a long pause, and the psychiatrist found himself looking up, meeting his patients rare, and quite confused, crimson eyes.

Yami bit his lip again, completely at a loss. "…Who's Yugi?"

* * *

**Notes on Yami: **He's a mess, simply put. What's up with his head? Well… (knowing smile)

**Notes on the voices: **Voices? What voices? (grins) Ahm…they were a vague idea that occurred to me, and I mostly included them because they fit, they help develop part of a plot line well, and I know for a fact they'll bug certain people who try to figure 'em out.

**Carbamazepine ("CBZ")** is an anticonvulsant and mood stabilizing drug, used primarily in the treatment of epilepsy and bipolar disorder. It is also used to treat schizophrenia and trigeminal neuralgia.

**Shadow: **I think someone's gonna smack me for the ending of this chapter, and so I (and my brain of mushy fuzz-fuzz) now run for the hills. (waves) Seeya!!


End file.
